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DENOMINATIONAL  EDUCATION; 


IJS  NECESSITY  AND  ITS  PRACTICABILITY 


ESPECIALLY  AS  IT  REGARDS  COLLEGES. 


AN  ADDRESS, 

DELIVERED     BEFORE     THE     THALIAN      AND     PHI-DELTA     SOCIETIES     OF 
OGLETHORPE    UNIVERSITY. 


BT    THE 

REV.  THOMAS  ^SMYTH,  D.  D. 


Ne  quid  falsi  dicnre  audeat,  ne  quid  veri  non  audeat  — Cicero 
Veritas  nihil  verelur,  nisi  abscondi. — Terence. 


CHARLESTON,  S.  C. 

PRINTED    BY    B,    JENKINS,    100   HAYNE-STREET. 

1846. 


i 


CORRESPONDENCE, 


Oglbthorpb  University, 
November  13, 1»15. 
Dbar  Sir,— 

As  a  Committee  of  the  Phi-Delta  Society,  we  respectfully  solicit  a  copy  of  your  very  appro- 
priate and  profound  address,  delivered  by  you  before  the  Thalian  and  Phi-Delta  Societies  on 
yesterday,  that;  it  may  be  published,  and  its  very  important  views  of  Education  be  widely 
diflseminaied.  Very  respectfully, 

Thos.  W.  Woolpolk  1 
RoBT.  IVBRSON  >    Committee. 

W.  H.  Hall,  S 

Rbv.  Thomas  Smtth,  D.  D. 


Midway,  Nor.  14,  1845. 

Gbmtlbkbh,— 

Hoping  that  the  interests  of  the  University,  and  the  general  cause  of  DenominationaJ 
Education  may  be  advanced  by  a  publication  of  my  Address,  I  cheerfully  comply  with  your 
request,  and  remain,  with  sentiments  of  the  highest  respect, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

Thomas  Smyth. 
Messrs.  Woolfolk,  Iverson,  &  Hall. 


PREFACE. 


It  is  high  time  that  the  public  should  be  made  acquainted  with 
the  distinction  between  Denominational  and  Sectarian  Educa- 
tion, two  things  essentially  distinct,  but,  in  the  common  under- 
standing, even  of  intelligent  men,  one  and  the  same.  To  point 
out,  however,  the  difference,  and  not  merely  the  distinction  be- 
tween these  two  things,  will  be  one  object  in  this  address.  * 

It  is  equally  necessary  that  the  public  mind  should  be  led  to 
discriminate  between  denominations  who  cannot,  or,  at  least,  do 
not,  teach  Christianity  in  all  its  essential  credenda,  or  things  to  be 
believed,  and  its  agenda,  or  things  to  be  performed,  without  indoc- 
trinating the  minds  of  their  pupils  with  all  the  peculiarities  of  their 
ecclesiastical  and  ritual  system, — and  those  who  can,  and  do,  leave 
these  things  in  their  proper  sphere,  and  imbue  the  minds  of  their 
pupils  only  with  the  essential  spirit  and  principles  of  Christianity. 
On  this  point,  also,  some  hints  will  be  offered,  which  may  give  to 
many  anew  and  encouraging  aspect  of  the  much  7?w5-understood 
system  of  Presbyterianism.  But  the  entire  argument  will  be 
found  as  applicable  to  other  evangelical  denominations,  as  to  the 
one  of  which  the  author  is  a  member. 

This  discourse  is  addressed,  with  whatever  ability  the  author 
possesses,  and  with  whatever  force  the  facts  and  arguments  may 
wield,  to  the  thinking  minds  among  our  people.  With  them  the 
question  of  Education  rests;  their  interests  it  involves ;  and  by 
them  must  it  be  decided.  And  while  the  author  would  most  re- 
spectfully solicit  the  attentive  consideration  ol  our  rulers,  legisla- 
tors and  politicians,  as  well  knowing  how  mighty  is  their  influence 
in  moulding  the  opinions  of  their  constituents,  yet  he  is  also  aware 
how  irresistible  are  the  united  and  intelligent  opinions  of  the  wise 
and  prudent  among  the  people.  Let,  then,  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  our  land  study  and  examine  this  matter.     It  will  soon  be  forced 

»  This  confusion  runs  as  a  latent  sophism  through  the  whole  of  the  arguments 
used  against  Denominational  Education.  Denominational  Education,  however, 
is  used  to  define  a  Religious  Education,  which,  to  be  secured,  must  be  under 
denominational  direction  and  control,  though  it  is  not  designed  to  teach  denom- 
inational or  ecclesiastical  peculiarities.    See  latter  part  of  the  Address. 


IV 

upon  them.  Already  is  the  controversy  it  involves  making  pro- 
gress, and,  ere  long,  it  must  become  a  great,  if  not  the  great 
national  question.  It  may  well  be  asked,  "  Do  ye  not  understand 
the  signs  of  the  times  ?"  And  we  may  well  hear  the  twice  re- 
peated instruction  of  the  wise  man,  "  a  prudent  man  foreseeth  the 
evil  and  hideth  himself,  but  the  simple  pass  on  and  are  punished."* 

For  the  reasons  stated,  and  the  nature  of  the  occasion,  the  sub- 
ject is  not  treated  on  religious  grounds,  but  only  on  grounds  of 
political  and  general  expediency  and  necessity.  To  christians, 
however,  there  are  reasons  in  favour  of  the  system  advocated, 
which  make  it  imperatively  binding  upon  them,  and  demand  their 
united  energies  in  carrying  it  forward.  For  if  a  direct,  efficient 
and  distinctive  religious  influence  can  be  secured  in  the  govern- 
ment and  instruction  of  any  institution  in  no  other  avay,  then 
every  motive  and  command  by  which  the  Bible  urges  parents  to 
"  train  up  their  children"  from  infancy  to  independent  and  mature 
manhood,  "in  the  way  they  should  go," — that  is,  "  to  bring  them 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  "  teaching  them  all 
things  whatsoever  Christ  has  commanded," — obligates  them  to  pa- 
tronize this  plan,  and  to  give  to  it  their  prayers,  co-operation  and 
support,  until  it  is  rendered  adequate  to  all  the  wants  of  our  grow- 
ing republic.  If  these  divine  requisitions  include  all  that  is  essen- 
tial to  secure  the  greater  blessing,  that  is  the  establishment  of  re- 
ligious principles,  habits  and  character,  they  must  also  include 
that  constant  and  thorough  religious  culture  and  influence  which 
can  alone  lead  to  such  a  result ;  and  if  they  include  the  great 
end,  even  the  personal  and  everlasting  salvation  of  the  soul,  they 
must  make  necessary  that  continual  enforcement  of  "  line  upon 
line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little," 
by  and  through  which  God  works  in  the  hearts  of  men.  "  Sanc- 
tify them  through  thy  truth,  thy  word  is  truth  "  And  God,  there- 
fore, in  making  it  the  duty  of  his  Church  to  provide  for  the  attain- 
ment of  these  ends,  has  also  made  it  her  duty  to  use  diligently  all 
the  means  by  which  education,  like  godliness,  "  may  be  profitable 
for  the  life  that  now  is,  and  also  for  the  life  that  is  to  come,"  and 
to  secure,  therefore,  for  the  young,  a  certain  and  an  efficient  re- 
ligious education.  And  if  there  is  any  one  part  of  education,  more 
than  another,  which  requires  to  be  imbued  with  the  restraining  and 
sanctifying  influences  of  the  gospel,  it  is  a  college  education,  for 
then  passion  is  strongest,  temptation  greatest,  and  restraint 
weakest. 

The  author  would  not  have  felt  warranted,  notwithstanding  his 
own  convictions  of  the  importance  of  the  subject,  in  presenting  it 
to  the  world,  had  it  not  been  suggested  for  his  discussion  on  this  oc- 
casion, and  had  not  the  publication  of  the  address  been  requested 
by  many  highly  influential  men,  and  also  by  the  prefixed  commu- 
nication, to  which  he  felt  bound  to  yield  an  assent. 

♦Prov.  xxii.  3,  &  xxvii.  12.  Seethe  quotations  from  the  N.  Y.  Evauge* 
list  and  New  Jersey  society,  in  the  Appendix. 


AN    ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Thalian  and  Phi-Delta  Societies: 

Although  I  appear  before  3^ou  almost  without  note  of  warning 
or  time  for  full  preparation,  I  have,  nevertheless,  fearlessly  thrown 
myself  into  the  engagement,  animated  by  the  glorious  nature  of  the 
subject  which  has  been  suggested  for  discussion,  and  the  hope 
that  I  may  be  able,  through  you,  and  the  lustre  of  this  occasion,  to 
give  to  it  greater  prominence  and  a  more  considerate  and  general 
attention. 

My  theme  is  Denominational  Education — its  necessity  and 
its  practicability, — especially  as  it  regards  colleges:  and  my  ob- 
ject will  be  to  show  that  society  will,  and  must  be,  educated ;  that 
education  to  be  a  blessing,  and  not  a  curse,  must  be  religious ; 
that  a  religious  education  can  most  effectually  be  imparted  by 
institutions  under  the  controul  of  some  one  denomination; — and 
that  denominational  colleges  are  both  necessary  and  practicable, 
and  free  from  any  valid  objection. 

As  it  regards  education  in  general,  the  controversy  is  now  nearly 
at  an  end.  Its  importance,  its  value,  its  paramount  worth,  its 
absolute  necessity  as  a  qualification  for  the  duties  and  privileges 
of  the  present  advanced  condition  of  society, — and  the  indisputa- 
ble  right  which  every  man  who  is  born  within  society  and  made 
subject  to  laws,  has  to  its  reception — these  are  truths  now  univer- 
sally admitted.  These  were  formerly  matters  of  grave  discussion 
and  angry  dispute.  These  are  still  reprobated  heresies  under 
every  system  of  civil  or  ecclesiastical  despotism — where,  as  in 
Italy,  and  in  Austria,  in  Turkey  and  in  China,  free-born  citizens 
are  taught, — to  use  the  language  of  the  Austrian  catechism,*  that 
"  subjects  ought  to  conduct  themselves  as  faithful  slaves  towards 
their  masters,  whose  power  extends  over  their  goods  as  well  as  their 
♦Italy,  Austria  and  the  Pope,  by  Joseph  Massini.    London  1845,  p.  52. 


6 

persons."  But  throughout  protestant  Christendom  these  are  no 
longer,  thank  God.  problematic  questions  to  be  determined  by  ex- 
periment, but  demonstrated  theorems,  or  rather  admitted  principles 
and  ultimate  facts,  so  that  the  man  who  questions  or  denies  them 
is  regarded  as  a  traitor  to  his  species  and  a  conspirator  against 
the  dearest  rights  and  liberties  of  humanity.  And  one  thing  is 
most  certain,  that  whether  it  is  or  is  not  true  that  civilization  is 
more  beneficial  to  a  community  than  barbarian  ignorance,  and 
that  it  is  in  a  state  of  darkness  rather  than  in  a  condition  of  light 
that  erroneous  views  and  evil  practices  are  most  likely  to  stalk 
abroad — it  is  no  longer  in  the  power  of  man  to  check  the  progress 
either  of  civilization  or  of  knowledge.  The  people  have  now 
awoke  to  a  full  consciousness  of  their  importance  and  their  dignity, 
and  are  determined  to  think  and  speak  for  themselves,  and  to  as- 
sert their  rights  against  the  tyranny  of  priestcraft  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  lordly  aristocracy  on  the  other. 

Knowledge,  like  the  angel  of  the  apocalypse,  has  now  clothed 
herself  with  wings,  and  is  seen  flying  in  the  midst  of  heaven  and 
proclaiming  her  truths  to  all  the  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  tribes, 
and  people  of  the  earth.  Her  voice  is  the  universal  press, — her 
carrier  the  illimitable  power  of  steam ;  and  her  messengers  the 
winds.  For  good  or  for  evil,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  for  better  or 
for  worse,  she  is  now  the  common  property  of  all  men,  free  and 
unshackled  as  the  air  we  breatlie. 

For  ourselves  we  rejoice  that  such  is  the  fact.  It  is  as  it  should 
be.  Man  isless  physical,  than  he  is  intellectual,  and  less  intellec- 
tual than  he  is  spiritual.  The  ties  that  bind  him  to  the  earth  are 
transient, — it  is  his  relation  to  eternity  that  stamps  upon  him  in- 
conceivable dignity  and  incalculable  worth.  Man's  happiness  or 
misery,  therefore,  consists  not  in  what  he  outwardly  either  enjoys 
or  wants.  Nakedness,  hunger  and  distress  of  every  kind,  have 
been  cheerfully  borne  when  the  heart  was  satisfied,  while  pomp 
and  wealth,  and  luxury,  and  every  form  of  earthly  grandeur 
have  operated  like  the  chains  and  fetters  of  a  guilty  felon,  only  to 
aggravate  the  misery  of  a  heart  which  was  not  right,  and  not  at 
rest.  It  is,  therefore,  proper  that  the  gem  of  every  soul  should  be 
freed  from  those  incrustrations  by  which  ignorance  surrounds  it, 


and  that  the  spirit  into  which  God  has  breathed  the  life  of  immor- 
tality should  be  at  liberty  to  expand  its  wings ;  to  soar  above  ter- 
restial  enjoyments  ;  to  hold  converse  with  nature  in  all  her  won- 
derful and  glorious  works ;  and  to  wander  in  its  illimitable  mu- 
sings, through  the  bright  regions  of  eternity. 

The  father  of  philosophy  has  made  it  a  proverbial  truth  that 
**  scientia  et  potentia  humana  in  idem  coincidunt,  quid  ignoratio 
caussae  destituit  effectum."* 

This  truth,  however,  which  is  now  simplified  into  the  declara- 
tion, that  "knowledge  is  power,"  like  all  great  and  fundamental 
truths,  is  only  the  borrowed  wisdom  of  that  celestial  Organum 
which  was  "  given  by  inspiration," — since  it  was  theie  written  thou- 
sands of  years  ago,  that  "  wisdom  is  profitable  to  direct,"  and  that 
*'a  wise  man  is  strong,  yea  a  man  of  knowledge  increaseth 
strength  !"t 

Without  knowledge  man  is  the  giant  chained  down  to  the  rock 
of  an  ignoble  destiny  ;  with  it  he  is  that  same  Prometheus  bring- 
ing down  intellectual  fire  even  from  the  skies.  Without  it  the 
soul  is  but  the  golden  mine  unopened  and  unemployed ;  with  it,  it 
is  that  golden  ore  coined,  and  circulated  in  streams  of  wealth 
throughout  the  world.  Without  it  man  is  but  an  infant  of  days,  a 
passive  instrument  in  the  hands  of  others,  the  tool  of  cunning,  the 
dupe  of  folly,  the  slave  of  sensuality,  the  instrument  of  any  and 
every  evil ;  with  it  he  is  a  fi-ee  agent,  capable  of  reasoning,  inde- 
pendent in  his  own  judgment,  and  under  the  guiding  influence  of 
foresight  and  of  wisdom. 

The  mind  of  man  is  this  world's  true  dimension, 
And  knowledge  is  the  measure  of  the  mind  : 

Smce 

Learning  is  an  addition,  beyond 
Nobility  or  birth. 

Knowledge  therefore  is  power  ;  the  power  by  which  mind  may 

accomplish  its  own  purposes ;    the  organ  of  intellectual  sense  by 

which  it  observes  all    things  ;    and  the  soul  of  the   intellectual 

body  by  which  it  carries  into  effect  its  determinations  and  its  plans. 

♦Novum  Organum.  Aphorism  iii.  in  Bacon's  works,  vol.  ix.  p.  191.  "  Knowl- 
edge and  human  power  are  synonymous,  since  the  ignorance  of  the  cause  frus- 
trates the  effect." 

tSee  Proverbs  xxiv.  5. 


And  would  any  man  see  of  what  effect  it  is  in  advancing-  the 
power  of  individuals  whether  as  kings  or  subjects,  politicians  or 
warriors,  citizens  or  relatives ;  whether  as  the  contemporaries  of 
the  present,  the  inheritors  of  the  past,  or  the  precursors  of  the 
future  age ; — let  him  read  "  The  two  Books  of  Francis  Bacon  on 
the  Profession  and  advancement  of  learning,  Divine  and  Human." 

"  Felix  qui  potest  rerum  cognoscere  causas, 
Cluique  metus  omnes,  et  inexorabile  latum 
Subjicit  pedibus,  strepitumque  Acherontis  avari." 

The  glory  of  knowledge  is,  that  it  makes  man  master  of  him- 
self, of  his  reason,  his  belief,  his  understanding,  and  of  his  will ; 
and  that  it  thus  elevates  man  to  the  throne  of  his  own  heart,  and 
gives  him  dominion  over  all  the  powers,  faculties,  passions  and 
affections  of  his  nature. 

Such  is  the  power  of  knowledge  over  man  individually,  and  as 
he  who  has  become  master  of  himself  is  mightier  than  he  who  has 
subdued  a  city,  so  does  this  power  over  a  man's  own  mind  and 
heart,  enable  him  to  exercise  the  same  power  over  others,  yea 
over  their  minds  and  understandings  and  wills,  and  by  conse- 
quence over  their  bodies  and  their  physical  energies.  Knowledge, 
therefore,  is  the  true  theatre  of  Orpheus,  of  which  ancient  poets 
sung,  "  where  all  beasts  and  birds  assembled ;  and  forgetting, 
their  several  appetites,  some  of  prey,  some  of  game,  some  of 
quarrel,  stood  all  sociably  together  listening  to  the  airs  and 
accords  of  the  harp;  the  sound  whereof  no  sooner  ceased,  or 
was  drowned  by  some  louder  noise,  but  every  beast  returned  to 
his  own  nature  ;  wherein  is  aptly  described  the  nature  and  condi- 
tion of  men,  who  are  full  of  savage  and  unreclaimed  desires  of 
profit,  of  lust,  of  revenge  ;  which  as  long  as  they  give  ear  to 
precepts,  to  laws,  to  religion,  sweetly  touched  with  eloquence 
and  persuasion  of  books,  of  sermons,  of  harangues,  so  long  is 
society  and  peace  maintained  ;  but  if  these  instruments  be  silent, 
or  that  sedition  and  tumult  make  them  not  audible,  all  things 
dissolve  into  anarchy  and  confusion." 

The  NECESSITY  of  knowledge  or  education,  and  the  power  of 
knowledge,  cannot  therefore  be  controverted.  But  these  premises 
being  granted,  a  wide  field  is  still  open  to  inquiry,  and  there  are 


many  roads  in  Avhich  those  premises  may  guide  us,  and  many 
conclusions  to  wliich  they  lead.  Knowledge  is  not,  and  cannot 
be  of  one  kind ;  for  ever  since  man  "ate  of  that  forbidden  tree," 
knowledge  has  been  characterized  by  evil  as  well  as  good,  and  its 
power  exerted  to  corrupt  as  much  as  to  purify.  Evil  thoughts,  evil 
imaginations,  evil  purposes,  evil  seeds  have  now  become  incorpora- 
ted with  knowledge,  and  while  its  fountain  pours  forth  the  streams 
of  happiness  and  joy,  it  also  sends  forth  the  bitter  floods  of  misery 
and  destruction.  And  if,  as  the  Bible  asserts ;  as  all  believers  in 
it  have  ever  testified ;  and  as  the  universal  and  uncontradicted 
experience  of  the  w^orld  proves  ;  man  is  now,  in  his  understanding 
darkened,  in  his  judgment  perverted,  in  his  tastes  sensualized,  and 
in  his  passions  and  propensities  depraved,  it  must  be  at  once  per- 
ceived that  as  is  man,  such  will  be  that  knowledge  current  among 
men  and  most  acceptable  to  them. 

Knowledge  then  is  power.  It  makes  men  giants.  It  consti- 
tutes them  kings  and  conquerors.  It  clothes  them  with  irresisti- 
ble influence  over  themselves  and  "Others.  But  what  then  ?  as  is 
man  such  will  be  the  end  aimed  at  in  the  exercise  of  this  power. 
Knowledge  puts  into  his  hands  the  club  of  Hercules,  but  his  heart 
incites  him  to  wield  that  club  for  the  destruction,  and  not  for  the 
salvation,  of  his  species.  Knowledge  clothes  him  with  a  coat  of  im- 
penetrable mail,  but  his  heart  leads  him  to  employ  it  in  resisting  and 
warding  oflf  the  influences  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  holiness. 

Knowledge  gives  to  a  man  the  hundred  eyes  of  Argus,  the  hun- 
dred hands  of  Briareus,  and  the  wings  of  Mercury  ;  it  has  imparted 
as  immense  power  to  the  intelletcual  man,  as  mechanical  engines 
have  given  to  the  physical  man  ;  it  is  the  steam-engine  of  the  moral 
world,  the  lever  of  Archimedes  transferred  from  matter  to  mind,  and 
furnishes  to  the  statesman  and  politician,  the  sceptic  and  the  utili- 
tarian, the  materialist  and  the  epicurean,  and  the  self-interested 
promoters  of  every  vice,  an  instrument  more  powerful  than  could 
be  wielded  by  any  other  means  ; — but  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief 
will  only  employ  this  inconceivable  power  in  diffusing  through 
every  vein  and  artery  of  the  social  system,  the  deadly  poison  of 

depravity  and  vice.* 

♦  See  Bell's  description  of  his  own  system. 


10 

Knowledge  then  is  power,  but  that  power  may  be  wielded 
by  the  madman  who  scatters  abroad  fire  and  death.  In 
short,  knowledge  is,  in  itself  considered,  mere  power,  and 
depends,  for  its  influence,  upon  the  manner  in  which  that  power  is 
exerted.  It  is  therefore  either  the  hand  of  Midas  which  convert- 
ed every  thing  it  touched  into  gold,  or  the  head  of  Medusa  which 
turned  every  thing  upon  which  it  looked,  into  fiery  serpents  whose 
bite  was  death. 

It  is  now,  therefore,  almost  as  generally  admitted,  as  that 
knowledge  is  necessary  to  the  individual  and  to  the  community, 
that  to  be  truly  beneficial  and  not  fatally  injurious,  that  know- 
ledge must  be  imbued  with  the  spirit  and  power  of  true  religion. 
There  is  a  chain  of  moral  sequences  as  inseparable  as  any  of 
the  laws  of  nature.  Freedom  is  necessary  to  human  happiness  ; 
virtue  is  necessary  to  freedom ;  knowledge  is  necessary  to  virtue  ; 
truth  is  necessary  to  knowledge ;  and  the  will,  authority,  and 
word  of  God  are  the  only  source,  rule,  and  standard  of  truth.  As 
man,  therefore,  is  an  emanation  from  God,  so  is  his  well-being  de- 
rived only  from  Him,  and  the  last  link  that  binds  together  in  peace 
and  prosperity  the  families  of  a  nation  is  fastened  to  "  the  throne 
of  the  eternal."  There  is  no  other  foundation  under  heaven,  or 
known  among  men,  upon  which  the  freedom,  the  prosperity,  and 
the  happiness  of  a  community  can  rest,  than  the  knowledge,  be- 
lief, and  practical  infusion  of  deep  religious  truth.  And  we  do  af- 
firm, and  venture  to  ask,  whether  events  everywhere,  and  in  every 
age,  throughout  the  world's  history,  "in  all  manner  of  dialects," 
do  not  throng  the  memory,  and  with  loud  and  emphatic  protesta- 
tion corroborate  the  decision  of  Scripture,  that  "  righteousness  cx- 
alteth  a  nation,  and  that  sin  is  a  reproach  and  ruin  to  any  people." 
A  state  is  civilized,  stable  and  happy,  in  proportion  as  law  and 
right  predominate  over  individual  passion  and  self-will ;  and 
hence  the  only  true  and  lasting  civilization  consists  in  the  in- 
fusion of  divine  truth  into  all  the  arts,  habits,  laws,  and  customs- 
of  the  social  polity.  This  is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  the  leaven 
of  society  ;  and  revealed  truth,  inwrought  into  the  texture  of  the 
social  constitution,  this  alone  can  preserve  a  state  from  lapsing 
deeper  and  deeper  into  hopeless  barbarism. 


11 

The  freedom  of  a  commonwealth  depends  on  the  combination 
of  two  things.  One  is  what  Machiavel  calls  its  orders,  that  is,  the 
forms  and  customs,  and  the  diiferent  classes,  assemblies,  and 
bodies,  with  different  powers  and  privileges  attributed  to  them,  into 
which  society  is  divided,  and  by  which  it  is  governed.  This  ern- 
braces  all  the  forms  by  which  the  framework  of  the  constitution  is 
distinguished,  and  it  is,  of  course,  necessary,  in  order  to  the  en- 
joyment of  popular  liberty,  that  these  forms  shall  be  popular,  and 
give  opportunity  for  popular  direction  and  control.  There  can  be 
no  security  except  under  wise  laws,  voted  by  the  best  men,  sanc- 
tioned by  the  love  and  approbation  of  the  people ;  and  there  can 
be  no  peace  except  where  there  is  harmony  between  the  governors 
and  the  governed ;  where  the  government  is  the  intelligence  of 
the  country  directing  it,  and  the  people  the  arm  of  the  country 
executing  its  decrees. 

But,  let  the  constitutional  forms  of  a  country  be  as  perfect  as 
they  may,  there  is  essential  to  freedom,  another  important 
element,  and  that  is,  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  people.  On 
the  mutual  conformity  and  harmony  of  these  things  the  preser- 
vation of  liberty  depends ;  but  of  the  two  the  latter  is  unspeakably 
the  most  important,  the  sine  qua  non  of  abiding  happiness,  and 
permanent  liberty.  While  this  remains,  the  former  cannot  be 
essentially  undermined,  nor  can  they,  in  any  case,  be  destroyed, 
except  by  a  military  conquest,  which  would  soon  be  reconquered 
and  overthrown.  Let  this  remain,  and  under  any  of  the  forms  of 
government,  a  people  will  be  happy  and  free.  But  let  this  be  lost, 
and  under  the  freest  of  all  civil  constitutions,  that  same  people  will 
be  miserable  and  enslaved.  So  that  it  is  true,  as  Machiavel  has 
well  said,  that  when  a  people  are  corrupt,  a  free  government  can 
neither  be  maintained  if  they  already  enjoy  it,  nor  ever  established 
if  they  enjoy  it  not.  And  the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  of 
all  ancient  kingdoms  will  prove,  that  those  forms  and  orders  of 
government,  which  are  most  adapted  to  secure  and  to  maintain 
liberty  while  the  people  remain  uncorrupt,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  religious  views  which  are  in  some  good  measure  true  and 
powerful ; — that  on  the  other  hand  these  very  forms  become 
injurious  to  that  liberty,  when  the  same  people  have  become  seep- 


12 

tical  in  faith  and  corrupt  in  morals.  And  hence,  in  all  the  ancient 
nations,  we  find  that  in  their  earliest  periods  they  were  imbued 
with  the  pure  traditional  remains  of  the  patriarchal  faith,  of  which 
the  leading  doctrines  are  found  imbedded  in  their  earliest  and 
purest  legal  institutes.*  And  hence  also  is  it  true  that  when  that 
faith  in  any  nation  had  become  corrupted  by  superstition  and 
idolatry,  and  those  morals  which  spring  from  it  had  sunk  into 
selfishness,  sensuality,  and  unprincipled  ambition, — it  was  found 
impossible  to  govern,  and  preserve  the  peace  and  order  of  society 
under  the  original  forms  of  a  free  and  popular  government,  and 
that  it  became  necessary  that  the  constitution  should  be  adapted 
to  the  manners  of  the  people,  and  the  absolute  and  uncontrouled 
poY'«r  of  a  monarchy,  a  despotism  or  a  dictatorship  be  substituted 
for  the  gentler  polity  of  a  republic,  or  of  a  limited  monarchy. f 
The  unvarying  testimony  of  all  experience,  therefore,  demonstrates 
the  conclusion,  that  among  a  corrupt  and  irreligious  people  a  free 
commonwealth  can  neither  be  established  nor  maintained. "1^ 

A  representative  government  and  free  institutions  are  not,  there- 
fore, the  cause,  but  the  effect ;  the  result,  and  not  the  antecedent ; 
the  visible  forms  in  which  the  already  settled  opinions  and  long 
cherished  principles  of  a  nation  are  embodied  ;  and  the  organs  by 
which  those  principles  are  developed  and  carried  out  into  action. 
These  institutions,  therefore,  must  as  surely  be  wanting,  or  hasten 
to  decay,  where  a  people  are  steeped  in  moral  and  religious  bond- 
age, as  a  healthy  body  must  become  feeble  and  languid  when  there 
is  a  diseased  vitality.  And  on  the  other  hand,  let  the  spirit  of  a 
nation  be  imbued  with  the  genius  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion, 
and  it  will  soon  develope  the  organs  and  the  beautiful  proportions  of 
a  free,  manly,  and  noble  constitution,  and  as  certainly  preserve  and 
perpetuate  the  equitable  sanctions,  rights,  privileges,  and  laws 
which  such  a  free  constitution  implies. 

It  is  in  vain,  therefore,  that  mere  speculative  and  philosophising 
economists  tell  us  that  the  happiness  and  liberty  of  a  people  de- 
pend on  their  wealth,  and  capital,  and  meansof  personal  comfort 

♦  dee  this  subject  fully  illustrated  as  it  regards  the  Romans,  &c.,  in  the  Amer 
can  Biblibal  Repository  for  October,  1813,  p.  346,  «&c. 
tSee  the  same  work  and  article,  p.  348-351. 
{See  Bolingbroke's  Idea  of  a  Patriot  King  in  works,  vol.  3. 


13 

and  enjoyment.  For  what  influence  could  these  exert  in  subduing 
passion,  extirpating  vice,  and  keeping  in  check  envy,  selfishness, 
malice,  and  every  other  evil  work  ?  Is  it  not  rather  apparent  that 
the  very  abundance  of  such  means  of  enjoyment  would  only  over- 
flow  the  spring-head  of  that  general  corruption;  luxury,  and  in- 
dulgence which  must  ever  terminate  in  disorder,  anarchy  and 
ruin. 

But  some  will  tell  us,  that  the  general  education  and  enlighten- 
ment of  the  people  will  accomplish  all  that  is  necessary  to  the 
establishment  and  the  perpetuity  of  freedom.  This  is  the  great 
modern  panacea  of  philosophers  and  politicians,  which  is  to  heal  all 
the  diseases,  and  secure  the  perfect  health,  of  the  body  politic. 
But  has  the  world,  I  ask,  by  all  its  wisdom  and  education  ever  yet 
succeeded  in  establishing  and  perpetuating  free  institutions,  or  real 
personal  liberty  ?  Were  not  Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome  civilized 
and  enlightened  beyond,  perhaps,  any  modern  kingdom  ?  And 
was  not  the  period  of  their  greatest  enlightenment  the  very  period 
of  their  greatest  depravity,  corruption,  anarchy,  misrule,  and  final 
enslavement  to  military  tyrants  1  They  were — and  their  history 
is  in  accordance  with  what  philosophy  and  reason  would  teach  us 
to  expect.  For  knowledge  is  power,  power  to  carry  out,  to  exe- 
cute, and  to  gratify  to  the  utmost  excess,  the  desires,  appetites  and 
passions  of  the  breast,  and  where  these  are  corrupt,  selfish,  am- 
bitious and  depraved,  it  makes  these  evil  passions  omnipotent  for 
evil,  and  all  the  laws  and  institutions  that  might  restrain  them  im- 
potent for  good.  Mere  human  and  scientific  knowledge,  as  its  ad- 
vocates delight  to  tell  us,  is  an  ocean  which  is  to  overflow  the  world. 
Yes !  it  is  an  ocean,  but  like  that  ocean  it  is  as  fearful  in  its 
tempests  as  it  is  useful  in  its  calm ;  as  destruct've  in  its  inunda- 
tions as  it  is  healthful  in  its  tides  ;  as  overwhelming  in  its  rocks 
and  shoals,  and  eddies  and  whirlpools,  as  it  is  invaluable  as  a  chan- 
nel for  a  free  and  unlimited  trade  ; — and  when  it  is  once  roused  into 
action  by  popular  commotion,  Avhen  it  is  once  upheaved  into  moun- 
tain billows  by  the  fierce  passions  of  an  ungodly,  unholy  and  irre- 
ligious populace,  that  neither  fear  God  nor  man, — where  are  the 
laws,  the  forms,  the  orders,  or  the  institutions,  however  free  and 
popular,  that  can  for  a  moment  sustain  the  shock  of  its  irresistible 


14 

might  ?  The  diffusion  of  mere  scientific  knowledge  and  educa- 
tion, therefore,  among  a  people,  all  intelligent  men  are  now  con- 
strained to  regard  as  a  dangerous  state  of  things,  because  it  makes 
them  powerful  only  for  evil,  if  they  are  not  so  educated  as  to  be 
made  powerful  for  good.* 

For  unless  such  knowledge  and  education  are  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  religion,  their  advantages  to  individuals  and 
to  society  are  not  only,  to  a  great  extent,  lost,  but  they  become  the 
fruitful  sources  of  aggravated  mischief,  corruption  and  misrule  to 
any  community. 

This  MUST  be  the  case  from  the  very  nature  and  constitution  of 
the  human  mind.  For  intelligence  and  education  increase  the 
power  and  ability  of  the  mind  to  act  out  its  purposes.  They  enlarge 
and  strengthen  the  desires,  while  they  do  not  enlighten,  purify, 
or,  invigorate  the  conscience  ;  they  extend  the  thirst  for  grati- 
fication, without  augmenting  the  means  of  resisting  temptation ; 
they  enable  the  heart,  which  is  naturally  "  deceitful  above  all 
things,  and  desperately  wicked,"  to  throw  around  vice  a  delu- 
sive appearance  of  reason,  necessity,  fashion  and  respectability; 
they  address  themselves  to  the  proud  and  selfish  feelings  of 
the  unrenewed  heart,  and  in  proportion  to  their  acquisition  and 
successful  attainment,  they  inflate  the  mind  with  pride,  haugh- 
tiness, contempt  of  others,  envy  and  jealousy  of  more  suc- 
cessful or  eminent  rivals  for  the  fame  and  honour  ot  society, 
and  with  a  towering  ambition  which  sets  at  defiance  all  the 
counsel  of  prudence,  all  the  restraints  of  religion,  all  the 
claims  of  philanthropy,  and  will  not  even  have  God  to  rule  over 
or  controul  it.  "As  he  proceeds  his  intellect  grows  in  strength, 
and  becomes  rampant  with  confidence.  It  exults  in  detecting  the 
weaknesses  and  failings  of  others  ;  it  glories  in  its  own 
resources ;  it  is  filled  with  self-sufficiency,  and  swollen  Avith 
self-conceit ;  and  as  the  very  frequency  with  which  it  may 
have  formed  theories  and  pictures  of  morality  and  religion  too 
often  renders  it  insensible  to  the  practical  obligations  of  both, 
it  soon  acknowledges  no  master,  pronounces  its  own  light  to  be 
sufficient, — scorning  to   yield  reverence    even    to   the  High  and 

*  See  Archbishop  Wbateley's  "Dangers  to  the  Christian  Faith."— p.  78-81. 


r 


15 

Holy  One;  who  alone  is  light,  and  truth,  and  life,  and  good- 
ness. Every  unsanctified  intellect  thus  becomes  a  tyrant ;  every 
master-intellect  a  master-tyrant.  The  more  splendid  the  talents, 
the  deeper  the  shades  that  are  cast  on  a  nature  already,  alas, 
very  dark,  and  very  depraved !  The  more  towering  the  genius, 
the  more  tremendous  the  engine  for  spreading  devastation  through 
the  empire  of  truth  and  order,  godliness  and  sobriety."  "  Where 
great  men  are  wicked,  there  wickedness  is  great." 

Mere  intellectual  education  is,  then,  a  misdirected  education, 
and  leads  to  ill-proportioned  attainments  in  knowledge;  to- 
an  ill-balanced  growth  of  the  mental  powers;  and  produces 
a  species  of  monomania  or  partial  insanity.  Earth,  and 
earthly  things,  form  the  horizon  which  bound  the  mental  view. 
Heaven,  and  the  things  which  are  spiritual  and  divine,  are 
excluded  from  its  contemplation.  The  soul  becomes  "  earthly, 
sensual,  and  devilish,"  an  archangel  ruined,  lost,  and  aban- 
doned to  the  pursuits  of  ungodliness,  to  swell  with  its  mightie 
powers  that  host  who  are  urging  war  against  the  truth  and 
order  and  holiness  heaven. 

Such  must  be  the  effects  of  a  mere  enlargement  and  cultivation; 
of  the  mental  powers,  without  a  proportionate  enlargement  and  cul- 
tivation of  the  moral  and  spiritual  affections,  as  appears  from  an 
a  priori  examination  of  the  mental  constitution.  Atid  such  has 
BEEN  its  influence,  as  is  proved  by  the  unimpeachable  testimony  of 
all  past  experience  during  the  ages  that  are  gone  by.  So  that  you 
have  only  to  point  me  to  any  individual  like  Alexander,  Csesar, 
Augustus,  Nero,  or  in  modern  times  a  Hildebrand,  a  Napoleon, 
a  Ceesar  Borgia,  a  Voltaire,  a  Mirabeau,  a  Rousseau,  a 
Robespierre,  a  Byron,  a  Burns,  a  Shelly,  or  any  one  of  a 
host  of  others,  who  were  pre-eminent  in  mere  intellectual 
power,  and  I  will  point  you  to  one  who  has  proved  himself,  as 
it  regards  the  entire  humanity  of  his  being,  a  moral  monster, 
deformed  and  defective,  and  therefore  either  a  misanthrope,  or- 
a  murderer  and  polluter  of  his  species,  and  as  surely  misera- 
ble, unhappy,  and  ill  at  ease  in  his  own  heart,  as  he  has  be- 
come the  source  of  such  misery  to  others.  Nor  do  I  know  s 
more  affecting  lesson  in  the   whole   history  of  the   world   tha©:. 


16 

the  confessions,  self-upbraidings,  and  evident  incapacity  to  fulfil 
the  duties  and  destinies  of  life,  either  to  their  own  comfort  or 
the  good  of  society,  of  such  lofty  spirits  as  Byron,  Burns  and 
Rousseau. 

Nor  is  this  experience  of  past  ages  belied,  but  on  the  con- 
trary most  abundantly  confirmed,  by  the  events  and  esoerience 
of  our  own  age.  France  was  never  as  distinguished  for  her 
learning  and  intellectual  developement  as  when  her  Encyclo- 
pedists, Economists,  lUumiaati,  poets,  and  orators  cast  from 
them  the  word  and  the  truth  of  God ;  undertook  to  reform, 
remodel,  and  regenerate  society  by  the  wisdom  of  man  ;  and 
precipitated  France,  and  a  great  part  of  Europe,  into  that 
moral  chaos,  where  atheism,  anarchy,  fear,  terror,  and  wild 
despair,  in  company  with  teachery,  blood,  and  murder,  reigned 
in  hellish  tumult,  turned  earth  into  a  Pandemonium,  and  Paris 
into  one  great  cauldron  of  blood,  and  filled  the  world  with  tears, 
ftnd  groans,  and  yells  of  unearthly  suffering,  whose  dying  echoes 
still  wail  in  every  night-wind's  sigh. 

Contrary  too  to  the  anticipations  of  the  most  fearful  philanthro- 
pists, facts  have  every  where  proved  that  the  progress  of  mere 
ii^itellectual  development  has  been  every  where  followed  by  the 
progressive  increase  of  immorality,  insubordination,  and  crime. 
From  very  full  tables  of  the  city  of  Glasgow  and  the  county  of 
Lanarkshire  in  Scotland  it  appears  tliat  of  the  whole  criminals 
committed,  sixty -eight  per  cent  are  educated,  and  only  about  22 
per  cent  uneducated,  that  is  to  say,  the  educated  criminals  are  to 
the  uneducated  as  two  to  one.  The  proportion  is  about  the 
same  of  the  whole  criminals  of  Scotland,  and  it  appears  from  the 
details  given  in  Mr.  Buckingham's  travels  in  America,  that  the 
same  proportion  holds  good  in  all  the  prisons  in  the  United 
States. 

"And  it  is  particularly  worthy  of  observation,  tliat  it  is  in  the 
/nore  educated  districts  of  the  lower  and  middle  wards  that  the 
increase  of  detected  crime  has  been  so  rapid."  And  this  was,  too, 
during  a  period  when  the  workmen  enjoyed  high  wages,  when  the 
population  was  increasing  37  per  cent,  when  manufacturing 
produce  had  doubled,  when  a  new  source  of  wealth  in  the  iron 


17 

mines  and  manufactuTee  had  been  opened,  and  an  extension  of 
manufacturing  industry  and  wealth,  unparalleled  in  the  whole 
annals  of  civilization. 

Self-goverHment  has  here  been  tried  on  the  greatest  scale, 
and  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances  for  the  last  forty 
years,  and  it  has  landed  the  community  in  100,000  practical 
heathen  within  its  bounds,  in  the  continual  existence  of  upwards 
of  6,000  unrelieved  paupers  in  a  single  city,  in  the  advance 
of  serious  crime  at  a  rate  four  times  as  fast  as  the  increase  of 
the  people,  and  in  the  diminution  of  the  chances  of  life  to  an 
extent  of  five-and-twenty  per  cent  in  ten  years." 

Now  Scotland  is  the  great  example  to  which  the  advocates  of 
secular  education    constantly  point,  as  illustrating   the  effect  of 
intellectual    cultivation    upon    the    character    of  mankind ;    and 
boundless   have  been  the  eulogiums  pronounced  upon  the  moral 
virtues,  steady  character,  and  provident  habits  of  that  once  held 
the    most    intellectual     portion    of    the     European     population. 
Doubtless,  as  long   as   Scotland  was  an  agricultural  or  pastoral 
country,    and    education    was    based    upon    religion — when    the 
school-house    stood    beside  the  church,  Scotland  was  a  virtuous 
country,  and  its  population   deservedly   stood    high  in  the  scale 
of  European  morality.     But  since  manufactures  have  overspread 
its   great    towns,  and     a  population    has    grown    up    in    certain 
places — educated,  indeed,  but  without   the    means    of  religious 
instruction,  and  almost  totally  destitute   of  religious  principle — 
the  character  of  the  nation,  in  this  respect,  has  entirely  changed ; 
and  it  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that  the  progress  of  crime  has  been 
more  rapid  in  that  part  of  the  British  dominions,  during  the  last 
ikiriy  years,  than  in  any  other  state  in  Europe.     It  appears  from  the 
evidence  laid  before  the  Combination  Committee,  in  a  late  Session 
of  Parliament,    that  the  progress   of  felonies   and  serious  crimes 
in  Glasgow,  during  the  last  sixteen  years,  has  been,  beyond  all 
precedent,  alarming,    the  population  having,   during  that  period, 
advanced   about    seventy    per    cent,    while   serious    crime    has 
increased  five  hundred  per  cent.     Crime  over  the  whole  country 
is  advancing  at  a  very  rapid  rate,  and  far  beyond  the  increase  of 
^e  popiilation.     In  England,  the  committals  which,  in  1813,  were 
2 


18 


7164,  had  risen  in  1837  to  23,612, — that  is  to  say,  they  had 
tripled  in  twenty-four  years.  This  advance  will  probably  be  con- 
sidered by  most  persons  as  sufficiently  alarming  throughout 
England,  but  it  is  small,  compared  to  the  progress  made  by 
Scotland  during  the  same  period,  where  serious  crimes  have 
advanced  from  89  in  1805,  to  3418  in  1838;  being  an  increase 
in  four-and-twenty  years,    of  more  than  thirty-fold.* 

The  celebrated  statistical  writer,  Moreau,  thus  sums  up  the 
progress  of  crime  in  the  United  Kingdom  for  the  last  thirty 
years : — "  The  number  of  individuals  brought  before  Criminal 
Courts  in  England  has  increased  five-fold  in  the  last  thirty 
years;  in  Ireland,  five  and  a  half;  and,  in  Scotland  twenty- 
nine-fold.  It  would  appear  that  Scotland,  by  becoming  a 
manufacturing  country  and  acquiring  riches,  has  seen  crime 
advance  with  the  most  frightful  rapidity  among  its  inhabitants. "f 

Farther,  the  Tables  below,  compiled  from  the  Parliamentry 
Returns  of  crimes  tried  in  Scotland  in  1837  and  1838,  will  show 
how  extremely  ill-founded  is  the  opinion,  that  the  majority  of 
criminals   are  uneducated  persons. :j: 

It  is   unnecessary  to  multiply   evidence  of  a  fact  so  perfectly 

•  Parliamentary  Returns. 

t  Moreau'*  SUiia'de  la  Grand  Bretago*,  ii.  297. 


I  OFFENDERS. 

Conld    nei- 
ther     Read 
nor  Write. 

Could  Read 
and     Write 
imperfectly. 

Could  Read 

and     Write 

well. 

Received    a 

Superior 
Education. 

Education 
not   nscer- 
tained. 

CD 

■  Males 

Fcm;des.  .  .  . 

735 

445 

248 

1345 
427 

479 
41 

65 
3 

57 
16 

( 

3126 

693 

1772 

520 

68 

73 

CO 
00 

'  Males 

'  Females.  .  .  . 

2609 
809 

353 

198 

1529 
541 

569 
61 

91 
2 

67 

7 

3418 

551 

2070 

630 

93 

74 

1837.  1838. 

Total  Uneducated, 693 551 

Total  Educated 2360 2793 

Thus  the  uneducated  criminals  in  Scotland  are  not  so  much  as  a  fifth  of  the 
educated,  and  while  the  former  are  declining  in  numbers,  the  latter  are  rapidly 
increasing. 


19 

apparent,  of  the  total  inadequacy  of  mere  secular  education 
to  check  the  progress  of  crime  in  the  British  Islands.  But  a 
very  singular  and  most  interesting  confirmation  of  the  same 
principles  has  been  afforded  by  the  criminal  returns  of  France, 
in  the  whole  eighty-six  departments  of  which  it  has  been  found 
that,  with  hardly  one  single  exception,  the  amount  of  crime  is 
jtist  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  instruction  which  prevails ; 
and  that  it  is  nowhere  so  prevalent  as  in  those  towns  and  depart- 
ments where  education  has  been  carried  to  the  highest  pitch. 
This  extraordinary  fact  which,  as  Mr.  Bulwer  very  candidly 
admits,  has  fairly  overturned  our  highly  preconceived  ideas  on 
the  subject,  is  deserving  of  the  most  serious  attention.  Its 
authenticity  is  called  in  question  only  by  that  numerous  class 
who  will  believe  no  facts  which  do  not  fall  in  with  their  own 
preconceived  ideas. 

Returns  of  exactly  the  same  character  have  been  obtained 
from  the  statistics  of  America,  and  are  to  be  found  in  M. 
Beaumont  and  Tocqueville's  able  work  on  the  Penitentiary 
System  of  this  country ;  but  the  details  are  numerous,  and  it 
is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  following  quotation  from  that  work  : — 
"  It  may  seem  that  a  state  having  every  vent  for  its  industry 
and  agriculture,  will  commit  less  crime  than  another  which, 
equally  enjoying  these  advantages,  does  not  equally  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  intelligence  and  enlightenment.  Nevertheless, 
we  do  not  think  that  you  can  attribute  the  diminution  of  crime  in 
the  North  to  instruction,  because  in  Connecticut,  where  there  is 
far  more  instruction  than  in  New  York,  crime  increases  with 
a  terrible  rapidity  ;  and  if  one  cannot  accuse  knowledge  as  the 
cause  of  this,  one  is  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  not  a 
preventive."* 

There  are,  however,  Tocqueville  tells  us,  some  institutions 
in  America  in  which  instruction  does  produce  the  effect 
of  reforming  even  the  most  abandoned  criminals.  But  mark 
the  kind  of  education  which,  according  to  his  high  authority, 
has  this  effect.      "The   education   in   these   houses  is   a  moral 

*  Beaumont  and  Tocqueville  on  the  Penitentiary  System  of  the  United 
States,  p.  147. 


20 

education ;  its  object  is  not  merely  to  load  the  memory,  but  to 
elevate  the  soul.  Do  not  lie,  and  do  as  well  as  you  can 
are  the  simple  words  with  which  children  are  admitted  into 
these  institutions.  Their  discipline  is  entirely  founded  on  morality, 
and  reposes  on  the  principles  of  true  philosophy.  Every  thing  is 
there  calculated  to  elevate  the  minds  of  the  persons  in  confine- 
ment, to  render  them  jealous  of  their  own  esteem,  and  that  of 
their  equals.  To  obtain  this  object,  they  make  a  feint  of 
treating  them  from  the  beginning,  like  men,  and  as  already  the 
members  of  a  free  society."  But  as  Scotland  is  the  country  to 
which  the  supporters  of  intellecutal  education  uniformly  refer  in 
confirmation  of  their  favourite  tenets  in  regard  to  the  influence 
of  education  on  public  virtue,  I  am  anxious  to  make  it  evi- 
dent that  it  affords  not  the  slightest  countenance  to  their 
principles,  but  the  strongest  confirmation  of  those  which  have 
now  been  advanced.  Scotland  as  she  was,  and  still  is,  in  the 
rural  and  pastoral  districts,  and  Scotland  as  she  is,  in  her 
great  towns  and  manufacturing  counties,  are  as  opposite  as 
light  and  darkness.  Would  you  behold  Scotland  as  she  was, 
enter  the  country  cottage  of  the  as  yet  untainted  rural  labourer; 
you  will  see  a  frugal,  industrious,  and  contented  family,  with 
few  luxuries,  but  fewer  wants,  bound  together  by  the  strongest 
bonds  of  social  affection,  fearing  God,  and  scrupulous  in  the 
discharge  of  every  moral  and  religious  duty ;  you  will  see  the 
young  at  the  village  school,  under  the  shadow  of  the  neighboring 
church,  inhaling  with  their  first  breath  the  principles  of  devotion, 
and  preparing  to  follow  the  simple  innocent  life  of  their  forefathers, 
who  repcse  in  the  neighbouring  churchyard  ;  you  will  see  the 
middle-aged  toiling  with  ceaseless  industry,  to  enable  them  to 
fulfil  the  engagement  contracted  by  the  broken  sixpence,*  or 
maintain  the  family  with  which  Providence  has  blest  their  union ; 
you  will  see  the  grey-haired  seated  in  the  armchair  of  old  age, 
surrounded  by  their  children  and  their  grandchildren,  reading 
the  Bible  every  evening  to  their  assembled  descendants,  and 
every  Sunday    night  joining   with   them  in   the  song   of  praise. 

♦  Bride  of  Lammermoor. 


21 

Such   was,  and,    in   many    places,    still   is,  Scotland    under   the 
Church,  the  schoolmaster,  and  the  Bible." 

"  Would  you  behold  Scotland  as  she  now  is  in  the  manufacturing 
districts  under  the  modern  system,  which  is  to  supersede  those 
antiquated  prejudices?  Enter  the  dark  and  dirty  change-houses, 
where  twelve  or  fourteen  mechanics,  with  pale  visages  and  wan 
cheeks,  are  assembled  on  Saturday  evening,  to  read  the  journals, 
discuss  the  prospects  of  their  trades'-unions,  and  enliven  a 
joyless  existence  by  singing,  intoxication,  and  sensuality ;  listen 
to  the  projects  sometimes  formed  for  offering  violence  to  the 
obnoxious  operative,  or  intimidating  by  threats  other  peaceable 
and  industrious  citizens;  hearken  to  the  gross  and  licentious 
conversation,  the  coarse  and  revolting  projects  which  are 
canvassed,  the  licentious  songs  which  are  sung,  the  depraved 
tales  told,  the  obscene  books  often  read  in  these  dens  of  iniquity ; 
follow  them  on,  as  they  wander  all  night  from  change-house 
to  change-house,  associating  with  all  the  abandoned  females 
they  meet  on  the  streets  at  these  untimely  hours,  drinking  a 
half-mutchkin  here,  a  bottle  of  porter  there,  a  gill  at  a  third 
station,  and  indulging,  without  scruple,  in  presence  of  each  other, 
in  all  the  desires  consequent  on  such  stimulants  and  such  society. 
Observe  them  continuing  this  scene  of  debauchery  through  all 
Saturday  and  Sunday  night,  and  returning  to  their  work,  pale, 
dirty,  unwashed,  and  discontented,  on  Monday  or  Tuesday 
morning,  having  been  two  nights  out  of  bed,  absent  from  their 
families,  and  spending  almost  all  their  earnings  in  profligacy, 
happy  if  they  have  not  been  worked  up,  at  the  close  of  this 
long  train  of  debauchery,  to  engage  in  some  highway-robbery  or 
house-breaking,  which  consigns  many  of  them  to  exile  or  the 
scaffold.  Such  is  Scotland  under  the  schoolmaster,  the  journalist, 
and  the  distiller ;  and,  grievous  as  the  picture  is,  those  practically 
acquainted  with  the  habits  of  many  of  our  manufacturers  will 
not  deem  it  overcharged."     So  speaks  one  of  her  sons. 

It  has,  I  know,  been  thought  that  these  calculations  are  wrong. 
But  Mons.  M.  A.  Quatelet  in  his  recent  and  elaborate  "  Treatise  on 
Man,  and  the  developement    of  his  faculties,"   which  has   been 


22 

published  in  several  languages,*  in  the  chapter  on  the  propensity 
to  crime,  says,  "  Thus  all  things  being  equal,  the  number  of 
criine^  against  persons,  compared  with  the  number  of  crimes 
against  property  during  the  years  1828  and  1829  was  greater, 
according  as  the  intellectual  state  of  the  accused  was  more  highly 
developed  ;  and  this  difference  bore  especially  on  murders,  rapes, 
assassinations,  blows,  wounds,  and  other  severe  crimes."  Again, 
"  It  is  remarkable  that  several  of  the  poorest  departments  of 
France,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  least  educated,  such  as  Creuse, 
Indre,  Cher,  Haute-Vienne,  Allier,  &c.,  are  at  the  same  time, 
the  most  moral,  whilst  the  contrary  is  the  case  in  most  of  the 
departments  which  have  the  greatest  wealth  and  instruction. 
These  apparent  singularities  are,  I  think,  explained  by  the  ob- 
servations which  have  been  made  above.  Morality  increases 
with  the  degree  of  education  in  the  late  kingdom  of  the  Low 
Countries,  which  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  course  of 
education  was  better."  And  in  giving  his  "conclusions"  from 
all  the  facts  analysed,  he  says,  "  12th.  Education  is  far  from 
having  so  much  influence  on  the  propensity  to  crime  as  is  generally 
supposed.  Moreover,  moral  instruction  is  very  often  confounded 
with  instruction  in  reading  and  writing  alone,  and  which  is  most 
frequently  an  accessory  instrument  to  crime." 

To  use  the  language  of  Mr.  Goadley  in  his  recent  letters  from 
America  :  '  Fruit  and  progress,'  says  the  Baconian  philosopher, 
or  one  who  assumes  the  name,  (meaning  thereby,  the  '  fruit'  of 
sensual  enjoyment,  and  the  'progress'  of  civilization,  and  the 
*  arts  of  life')  '  are  the  great  ends  and  objects  of  our  being,  the  tests 
of  true  philosophy.'  Well,  we  have  now  been  acting  upon  that 
principle  in  England  for  a  great  number  of  years,  and  it  must  be 
confessed,  with  great  success — that  is,  we  have  made  wonderful 
discoveries ;  we  have  dived  into  the  secrets  of  nature,  and  forced 
powers  and  elements,  hitherto  unknown,  to  minister  to  us ;  we 
have  accumulated  unimagined  wealth  ;  we  have  brought  nearly  to 
the  perfection  of  luxury  the  art  of  living;  and  what  is  the  result? 
Is  England  merrier  now  than  she  used  to  be  ?  more  contented, 

*  Republished  in  Edinb.,  1842,  by  Chambers.     See  p.  84,  89,  95,     Published 
also  in  Germany  and  Italy. 


23 

more  loyal,  more  religious  ?  Alas,  the  united  voice  of  the  press, 
the  parliament,  the  nation,  answers  'No.'  And  yet  people  flatter 
themselves  that  nothing  more  is  wanted  than  a  further  develope- 
ment  of  the  same  system,  a  more  consistent  carrying  out  of 
the  same  principle,  in  order  to  remedy  the  evils  which  exist ; 
and  here  in  America,  where  all  manifestly  tends  to  a  far  more 
rapid  consummation  of  the  same  result,  where  the  same  principles 
are  at  work,  unchecked  by  the  counteracting  causes  which 
linger  among  ourselves,  every  eifort  seems  to  be  made  to  allow 
them    full  and  undisturbed  action." 

Such  proofs  of  the  necessary  influence  of  a  mere  intellectual 
developement  of  the  powers  of  man,  are  leading  very  generally 
to  the  conclusion  that  education,  unless  when  it  is  a  religious 
EDUCATION,  is  a  cursc,  and  not  a  blessing  to  any  Society.  "  Re- 
ligious and  moral  education,"  says  Cousin,  is  the  first  want  of 
a  people.  Without  this  every  other  education  is  not  only  without 
real  utility,  but  in  some  respects  dangerous.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
religious  education  has  taken  firm  root,  intellectual  education 
will  have  complete  success,  and  ought,  on  no  account,  to  be 
withheld  from  the  people,  since  God  has  endowed  them  with 
all  the  faculties  of  acquiring  it,  and  since  the  cultivation  of  all 
the  powers  of  man  secures  to  him  the  means  of  reaching  perfec- 
tion, and  through  that,  supreme  happiness." 

Guizot  has  also  said,  "  There  is  one  thing  demands  our  zeal 
above  all  others — I  mean  moral  and  religious  instruction.  "You 
know,"  he  says  in  his  letter  to  the  primary  teachers  of  France, 
"  that  virtue  is  not  always  the  concomitant  of  knowledge,  and 
that  the  lessons  which  children  receive  may  become  pernicious 
if  addressed  only  to  the  understanding." 

"  That  religion,"  says  Bolingbroke,  is  necessary  to  strengthen, 
and  that  it  contributes  to  the  support  of  Government,  cannot 
be  denied,  without  contradicting  reason  and  experience  both." 
Again,  "  To  make  Government  effectual  to  all  the  good  purposes 
of  it,  there  must  be  a  religion ;  this  religion  must  be  national, 
and  this  national  religion  must  be  maintained  in  reputation 
and  reverence."  The  iron-hearted  Robespierre  in  that  ever 
memorable  conlave  which  voted  that  there  was   no   (rod,  could 


24 


boldly  protest  against  the  political  inexpediency  of  the  decision: 
excla.m:ng.^ inhere  were  no  God;  a  wise  Governn^ent  would 
invent  one  !       Napoleon,  according  to  the  authority  of  a  n^odern 
French  statesman,  was  heard  on  one  occasion  to  declare -''No 
society   can  exist  without  morals;  and  there  can    be   no  sound 
morals  without  religion.      Hence,  there  is  no  firm  or  durable  bul- 
wark for  a  State,  but  what  religion  constructs ;  let,  therefore,  every 
school  throughout  the  land,  assume  the  precepts  of  religion  as  the 
basis  of  instruction.     Experience  has  torn  the  veil  from  our  eyes  - 
It  may  be  very  interesting  as  a  practical  and  most  conclusive 
Illustration  and  proof  of  the  different  results  of  a  religious  educa 
tion,  and  an  attempt  to  elevate  a  people  by  any  other  means  to 
allude  to  the  present  condition  of  what  were  originally  the  same 
people  in  Wales  and  in  Ireland. 

"Less  than  a  century  ago,"  says  Mr.  Lewis, -so   late   as   the 
Rebellion  of  174.5,  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  were  peopled  with 
rude  and  half-savage  clans,  attached  to  the  grossest  superstitions  of 
Popery,  and  following  their    chiefs  to  the  field  of  battle  in  any 
quarrel,  just  or   unjust,  in   which  they  might  engage,  destitute  of 
the  smallest  tincture  of  letters   or   of  religious   knowledge   and 
requiring  a  series  of  forts  and  garrisons  to  keep  them  from  rebel 
lion   and    internal  feuds.      It   has  been   too  little   observed   how 
marvellous,  in  the  lapse  of  a  century,  has  been  the  change  in  the 
Highlands   of  Scotland.      It  has  been    still    less   observed   in  its 
cause.     The  Highlands  have  been  planted  with  Protestant  pastors, 
speaking  the  language  of  the  natives,  and  they  have  heard,  for  1 
century,  Christ  preached  in  their  mother-tongue.     They  have  had 
parochial  schoolmasters  to  teach  their  children,  established  by  the 
care  of  the  Church.     To  the  parochial  schoolmasters,  too  few  in 
number  for  parishes  so  extensive  in  their  boundaries,  the  General 
Assembly  added  130  more,  teaching,  in  English  and  Gaelic,  the 
youth  of  the  Highlands.     The  Bible  has  not  only  been  translated, 
but  everywhere  circulated,  and  the  Psalms  have  long  since  beeii 
given  to  them  in  their  native  tongue  to  be  sung  in  their  cottages 
and  churches.     The  natural  result  of  these  efforts   of  a   resideut 
preaching,  teaching,  and  zealous  clergy,  is  now  visible  in  the  quiet 
and  good  order  of  those  once-disturbed  districts,  where  aasassina- 


25 

tion,  robbery,  and  fire-raising  are  unknown,  and  where  the  absen- 
tee landlords  of  England  and  Ireland  may  spend  whole  days  and 
nights  in  autumn  in  roaming  its  mountains  and  valleys  in  search 
of  game,  undisturbed  by  aught  but  the  respectful  salute  of  the 
natives  to  the  stranger.  No  part  of  all  Scotland  is  at  this  moment 
so  thoroughly  Protestant  and  Presbyterian  in  its  feelings  as  just 
those  veiy  Highlanders,  whose  ancestors  fought  and  fell  at  the 
battle  of  CuUoden  for  the  restoration  of  Prelacy  and  the  Pretender. 
What  a  contrast  to  the  Highlands  of  Ireland  !  In  1745,  they  were 
in  the  same  state  as  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  under  the  dark- 
ness of  Popery,  ready  to  follow  their  chiefs  in  any  quarrel,  and 
zealous  like  them  for  Popery  and  the  Pretender.  But  a  century 
has  passed,  and,  while  the  one  population  now  rank  among 
civilized  and  christianized  men,  the  other  remain  the  wild  Irish 
still,  ignorant,  superstitious,  vindictive,  that  know  no  law  but  the 
law  of  force,  and  can  hardly  be  restrained  by  the  presence  of  an 
armed  soldiery  or  a  disciplined  police  from  breaking  out  at  every 
interval  into  deeds  of  savage  violence  and  cruel  revenge.  Yet, 
are  they  not  the  same  race  with  the  Celts  of  the  mountains  of 
Scotland,  speaking  the  same  language,  and,  a  century  ago,  of  the 
same  religion,  manners,  habits,  and  customs  ?  Who  has  made 
them  now  so  widely  to  differ  but  that  Church  which,  to  the  Scottish 
Celts,  has  been  a  nursing-mother,  feeding  their  children  with  '  the 
finest  of  the  wheat,  and  with  honey  out  of  the  rock  satisfying 
them,'  while  the  Church  of  Ireland  has  been  to  the  Celts  of  Ire- 
land a  careless,  unfeeling  step-mother,  that  left  her  charge  to  roam 
in  the  wilderness,  fed  by  strange  shepherds,  or  devoured  by  wolves  ?* 
The  position  is,  therefore,  I  think,  now  demonstrated,  that  educa- 
tion,  when  it  is  not  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  religion,  is  power  put 
into  the  hands  of  any  people  for  evil  and  not  for  good ;  and  that 
instead  of  benefiting,  it  will  prove  injurious  to  any  nation. f     As 

*  This  might  be  argued  also  from  the  entire  disproportion  between  reasoH  or 
intelligence  dLTid  bruti  force  when  armed  by  passion.  Religion  alone  ca.n  con- 
troul,  and  even  conTeri  into  good,  such  force.  See  Butler's  Analogy  [mrt  i,  c.  3. 
See  also  the  result  of  the  non-reiiirioiis  colleges  of  India  under  the  support  of 
the  British  government.  See  Duff  on  India  and  India  missions,  p.  ^0,  271 
and  elsewhere  at  large  and  583  584,  589. 

tThe  state  of  the  colleges  in  Holland  powerfully  confirms  our  conclusion,  as 
represented  by  Dr.  Capadose  to  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  "But,  unheard-of 
fact!  in  place  of  the  article  which  promises  equal  protection  to  all  religions,  the 


union  wuh  God   was  the  original  law  of  man's  nature,  so  is  re- 
union wnh  him  essential  to  the  perfection,  harmony  and  happi- 
ness  of  his  moral  being.     And  to  lead  to  this  consummation  every 
thing  not  on  y  in   the  ordinances  and  teaching  of  Christianity,  bat 
also     the  whole  experience  of  life,  all  that   befals   and  belongs  to 
him  m  zt,hKs  domestic  position,  his  social  position,  whatever  is  his 
whatever  lies  around  him"  are  all  made  to  work  together  to  form 
one  comprehensive  scheme  of  discipline  devised  by  infinite  wisdom 
for  the  purpose  of  contributing   to    the  accomplishment   of  that 
great  design.     The  great  end  and  aim  of  education,  therefore  is 
not  to  fit  and  prepare    men    for  a  successful   scramble    for  the 
loaves  and  fishes,  the   gold  and    silver,  the  honours  and  emolu- 
ments, or  any  of  the  beggarly  elements  of  earth, -but   to  secure 
the  renovation  of  a  heart  which  has  fallen  away  from  God    by 
the  operation  of  truth  upon  the  mind  and  character  ' 

''  Knowledge  is  not  then  a  couch,  whereupon  to  rest  a  searching 
and  restless  spirit;  or  a  terrasse  for  a  wandering  and  variabi: 
Government,  in  order  not  to  nlease  thp  Prim,,,  n  ,v.  v 
bidden  all  religious  instruct!  in  tLf.hT^V ^u '''o ''''''  '>^^  not  only  for- 
under  a  thousands  pretexts  h"  ^nv  sLi.I  "t  f  '^'  f'''''  ^"^  ^^^'"  ''i"<Jer8, 
classes,  at  the  cost  of  pr 'v^ te  nSu'a  "and  "^  lltsh''?  '■^"'"?  °'^^^  '"^^^ 
foundation,  should   be  placed  beii  e  oib^r  f.h  ^ -*^u"P""  ^  ^'"'^^  Christian 

monopoly  of  instruction  which  the  rLv  '•^^°"^'' ^"^'  'has  interfere  with  the 
those ^.f'the  class  TciHzns  Iho  have'tTrf  fV  "^'^^''^  '^  ''«^'*'-  ^U 
schools  in  which  instruction  in  ,l?e"7onif-tfv^^  ^'^"'  "'^  ^^'^^  ^^^^ 
and  who  have  not  the  means  of  a, v^nl  h  '\f'?'i^'^''^°  .<="nnot  be  blessed, 
placed  in  the  terrible  alLn'iv  ,eithf  o^al  ow  u'  ' 'r"  ''''''''  masters,  are' 
structioM   of  any  kind,  or  to   exnose  thl.  t   t  "'"''    "P  ^'''^'""t  iu- 

instructionfron/which  every  relSsllel.^  ^^«  P^'-^'cjous  influence  of  an 
of  God  have  been  strictf;separated  ^"  ""'*''  ""^  '^'  '^°'>'  ^^'^''^ 

thl'^il^rsLirs^,- -l^f  F^^£:^ij  t '-:  ?^'^-^-^  ^^ 

lion  of  whom  Ihe  irrea'  iimiomv  mnlii,,l»  ,„  i  ■>"?  "'''"'  f'"™  «  genera- 

■oua  snarl,  ofinfidelity  on  thl  one  lai^d  and  ill  n'  '"""""fi  !>?  "■»  <"«''- 

r>ii.tLi°f^rdrteF-f;-^^ 

vital  truths,  such  as  the  TrinTy-tlt  D  SX«r^^'  v"""      '^.?^'r'"«.'n  ^hich 

religion-is  d'enied   in  th^  rnC  ns  ^    \.Srer''%nri  1""  Ir"'  'k'^ 
teaching  that  our  youn,,  ministers  are  prepared  f^r   he  prelchin:  of  the  .o"nd  m 

Home  <f  Foreign  Miss.  Record  of  the  Free  Church.  ^         ^  ^-   ~ 


27 

mind  to  walk  up  and  down  with  a  fair  prospect ;  or  a  tower  of 
state,  for  a  proud  mind  to  raise  itself  upon ;  or  a  fort  or  com- 
manding ground,  for  strife  and  contention ;  or  a  shop,  for  profit 
or  sale ;  but  a  rich  storehouse,  for  the  glory  of  the  creator,  and 
the  relief  of  man's  estate."* 

Religion,  therefore,  must  be  included  not  only  as  one  of  the 
many  branches  of  instruction  to  which  the  attention  is  directed, 
but  it  must  be  the  pervading   and   controlling    principle  of  the 
whole,  to  which  all  the  others  are  subordinated,  and  for  which  the 
foundation  is  to  be  laid  and  all  the  details  regulated.     Nature  her- 
self  teaches,  that  all  kinds  of  physical  good  are,  in  her  estimation, 
not  once  to  be  compared  to  the  very  lowest  moral  acquirements. 
These  man  shares,  though  it  is  true  in  a  higher  degree,  with  the 
brute  creation ;  while  the  moral  and  religious  capacity  are  alto- 
gether  peculiar  to  man.     A  complete  moral  machinery  is,  therefore, 
implanted  in  the  human  mind.     The  moral   and  religious  faculties 
are  the  first  which  are  developed,  and  the  only  ones,  which  can, 
in  fact,  be  cultivated  at  all  during  the  earliest  years  of  childhood. 
Children   are   incapable   of   learning  any  thing  else,  than  what 
is  connected  with  one  or  other  of  these  branches  of  education.     In 
these  they  are,  however,  capable  of  making  rapid  and  permanent 
progress.       Their     faith     is    unhesitating    and    complete,    their 
imagination  fitted    to  comprehend    what  is  mighty    and   sublime, 
and  their  affections  ready  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  influence 
of  love    and  kindness  as  exhibited  in  the  character  and  ways  of 
God.     Moral   attainments,   also,   are   accompanied   by   the   calm 
consciousness  of  dignity,  self-approvel  and  peace,  and  excite  the 
admiration  and  approval  of  others,  while  the  highest  intellectual 
attainments,   when   not  accompanied  by    religion,    lead    only  to 
personal  dissatisfaction,  degradation  and  misery.     In]  every  way, 
therefore,  does   nature    point    out   the  immeasurable  superiority 
and    supreme   importance    of  moral  and  religious,   above  mere 
physical  and  intellectual  attainments.     "  We  believe  that,  if  it  be 
really  wished  to  repair  to  the   most   authentic  sources,  and   to 
labour  with  a  view  to  permanent,  as  well  as  to  immediate  results, 
in  the  culture  of  the  human  being,  we  must  draw  our  informa- 
•  Bacon's  Works,  vol.  i. ,  p.  251. 


28 


tion,  not  from  any  vague   theory  or  speculation,   but  from   the 
consideration  of  the  experimental  facts  of  the  nature  of  man  him- 
self, and  of  the  condition  in  which   it   has  pleased    God  to  place 
him.     If  we   go  to  Scripture,  as   to   the  highest   record   of  that 
which  most   concerns   us,  we  are  assured   that  his  natural  life 
upon  earth  is  a  life  that  perishes  like  the  grass,— that  it  flourishes 
in  the  morning,  and  that  in  the  evening  it  is  gone.     If  such  be 
the  case,  is  it  not  natural  and  incumbent  upon  us  that  we  should 
direct  our   attention  to  that  imperishable  life  which  lies  beyond 
the  grave ;  that  we  should  not  pretend  we  are  educating  a  man, 
when,  in   point  of  fact,  our  eflbrts  only   have   reference   to  the 
temporary  incidents   of  this  earthly  state,  which  is  the  state  of 
his  infancy;  and  have  no  reference  to  that  future  state,  which  is 
the  state  of  his  manhood  and  full  developement  ?     If,  again,  we 
look  to  the  institutions  of  our  religion,  do  we  not  find  tha°  all  our 
children  are  already  in  covenant  with  God  ;  that  they  are  already 
dedicated  to  him  by  baptism,  and  after  they  have  been  so  dedicated, 
and  during  the  very  first  days  or  weeks  of  infancy  have  been  stamped 
with  His  seal,  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  when  their  faculties  begin 
to   ripen   and   expand,   they  are   to   be  trained   up   without   the 
knowledge   of  the  life-giving   truths  of  revelation  ?     If  we  look 
to  the  nature  of  the  human  mind  itself,  if  we  consider  its  longings, 
how  comprehensive   is  its  range,  how  great  its  capabilities,  how 
little  its  best  and  highest  faculties  are  satisfied  with  the  objects 
that  are  placed  before   us   upon    earth ;    how  many  marks   this 
dispensation  bears  of  being   a   temporary,    and  as   it   were   an 
initiatory   dispensation,— is  it  not  monstrous   to  pretend  that  we 
are  giving  to  the  human  being  such  a  cultivation  as    befits  his 
nature  and   his  destiny,  when  we  put  out  of  sight  all  the  higher 
and    the    more    permanent    purposes   for    which    he    lives,   and 
confine  our  provision  to  matters  which,  however  valuable,  (and 
valuable   they   are  in   their   own  place)  yet  of  themselves  bear 
only  upon  earthly  ends  ?     Is  it  not  a  fraud    upon  ourselves  and 
our  fellow-creatures,- is  it  not  playing  and  paltering  with  words, 
is  it  not  giving  stones  to  those  who  ask  for  bread,  if,  when  man, 
so  endowed  as  he  is,  and  with  such  high  necessities,  demands  of 
his  fellow-men  that  he  may  be  rightly  trained,  we  impart  to  him, 


29 

under  the  name  of  an  adequate  education,  that  which  has  no 
reference  to  his  most  essential  capacities  and  wants,  and  which 
limits  the  immortal  creature  to  objects  that  perish  in  the  use." 
Just  as  surely,  therefore,  as  "  the  mind  is  the  man,  and  the 
knowledge  is  the  mind,"  so  that  "  a  man  is  what  he  knoweth," 
and  "the  truth  of  being  and  the  truth  of  knowing  is  all  one," 
just  so  sure  is  it  that  as  God  is  truth  and  its  only  source,  rule, 
and  standard,  and  as  all  true  wisdom  cometh  down  from 
above, — an  education  which  is  not  positively  religious,  is 
irreligious,  profane,  contrary  to  the  nature,  capacities,  and 
wants  of  man,  and  leaves  him  in  a  condition  of  moral  inanition, 
icrnorance,  depravity,  and  wild  disorder.  And  since,  as  we 
have  seen,  education  of  some  kind  must  be  given,  and  will  be 
had,  the  conclusion  is  forced  upon  us,  that  our  people  must 
have  a  religious  education  or  our  liberties  are  gone.  For,  if 
the  spirit  and  character  of  a  people  is  the  essential  element  in 
the  establishment  and  perpetuity  of  any  peaceful  and  prosperous 
kingdom,  how  much  more  is  this  necessary  in  a  commonwealth, 
where  every  man  is  a  component  part  of  the  Government,  and 
gives  tone  to  its  character,  and  shape  to  its  laws.*  Just  in 
proportion,  therefore,  as  education  is  increased  and  elevated, 
must  the  religious  and  moral  instruction  which  are  combined 
with  it,  be  increased.     For  there  may  be, — and  let  this  considera- 

*"  Better,  far  better,  that  every  suc'i  school  should  be  closed,  even  though  the 
scholars  should  grow  up  without  education  of  any  kind,  than  that  they  should 
be  trained  up  with  pr^judices  against  the  Bible,  such  as  those  which  its  official 
exclusion  from  the  schools,  as  a  sectarian  book,  is  calculated  to  create.  With- 
out the  inculcation  ol  that  system  of  morality  which  the  Bible  reveals,  the 
mere  instruction  in  leiters  will  prove  a  curse  ratlier  than  a  blessing;  and  if, 
superadded  to  the  neglect  of  moral  training,  there  be  inculcated  a  contempt  for 
the  Bible  by  nicknaming  it  a  s^ectarian  book,  the  youth  coming  forth  from  such 
schools  will  be  prepared  to  intect  the  moriil  atmo-phere  in  which  they  live  and 
spread  the  contagion  of  vice  throughout  the  community. 

"  Well  did  that  Christiin  putri't,  Doctor  Channing,  who  has  so  recently  Ittlt 
his  country  and  the  worM  to  feel  and  mourn  his  loss,  exclaim,  "  The  expdtation 
of  talent,  as  it  is  called,  aliove  virtue  and  relit;ion,  is  the  Ciirsc  of  the  age. 
Talent  is  worshipped,  but  if  divorceil  troin  rectitude,  it  will  prove  more  a  demon 
than  a  God."  For  in  the  ian^ua're  of  a  not  her  gifted  writer,  "  Better  that  men 
should  remain  in  ignorance,  than  that  they  should  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  only  to  be  made  more  subtle  and  powerful  adversaries  of  God  and 
humanity."  And  yet  such  must  be  the  practical  fruit  of  Common  Schools  thus 
dishonored,  perverted,  and  prostituted  to  the  service  of  this  crusade  against  the 
Bible." — Dr.  Reese. 

See  also,  Powell  on  Education,  p.  44,  53,  79,  80.  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nationsi 
B.  V.  ch.  i.  Tocqueville,  vol.  ii.  p.  319,  153,  155,  and  vol.  i.  p.  349,  351, 
and  428. 


30 

tion  be  well  weighed, — spiritual  knowledge  conveyed,  and  yet 
it  may  be  so  conveyed  as  to  be  useless,  because  dispropor- 
tionate to  the  worldly  knowledge  which  is  imparted.  And 
just  so  far  as  this  is  the  case, — so  far  as  the  intellect  is 
strengthened  by  the  acquisition  of  science,  professional  learning, 
or  general  literature,  without  being  proportionately  exercised 
in  spiritual  subjects, — ^just  so  much  the  more  will  the  mind 
be  open  to  infidel  and  skeptical  objections  which  it  finds  itselt 
unprepared  to  meet ;  and  thus  be  led  to  throw  off  from  itself, 
as  a  vulgar  or  outworn  garment,  that  system  of  divine  truth 
which  it  does  not  appreciate,  only  because  it  does  not  full^f^ 
understand  it ; — which  is  full  of  difficulties  only  because  it  is 
30  full  of  unexamined  matter  ; — and  which  is  so  distasteful,  only 
because  a  taste  and  a  relish  for  it  have  not  been  properly 
formed.  Not  being  trained  up  in  the  way  he  should  go,  the 
man  follows  in  that  path  of  worldliness  in  which  he  was 
trained,  and  being  brought  up  in  the  nurture  of  science  and 
not  of  the  Lord,  when  he  is  old,  he  casts  off  the  Lord  that 
bought  him  and  goes  after  the  idols  of  the  heart,  of  the  affec- 
tions, and   of  the  understanding.* 

But  if  such  a  religious  education  is  essential,  the  question 
arises,  can  it  be  imparted  by  the  state  or  government  ?  Now 
it  will  admit  of  a  very  strong  argument  whether  in  this  countiy 
at  least,  if  not  every  where,  it  is  competent  for  the  government 
to  interfere  with  the  education  of  the  people  in  any  other  way, 
than  by  encouragement,  or  such  an  equalized  tax  for  educational 
purposes  as  will  allow  every  citizen  to  designate  the  particular 
institutions  to  which  he  wishes  his  tax  to  go.  On  this  basis 
colleges  managed  by  the  State  might  be  acceptable,  or  even  pre- 
ferable to  some,  and  by  their  example  useful  to  all. 

State  education,  except  in  the  way  and  on  the  plan  suggested,  as 
Tocqueville  and  other  writers  teach,    tends   to  centralize   power 

»  See  this  picture  filled  out  in  the  melancholy  history  nnd  course  of  Mr. 
Brownson  as  depicted  by  himself  in  his  work,  "  My  Progress  in  Error,"  who 
has  run  like  an  unchained  nnd  untamed  beast  of  the  forest,  through  every 
species  of  error  and  delusion,  until  now  he  is  fanatically  in  love  with  the  Pope, 
and  mad  for  the  substitution  of  the  free !  tolerant !!  and  republican  !  ! !  syBtem 
of  Popery,  with  its  literature  too!!!  in  the  place  of  the  republican  Protestantifm 
of  America. 


31 

in  the  hands  of  the  government ;  and  as  its  patronage  is 
exclusive,  to  form  a  body  within  the  nation  which,  as  it  has 
the  power,  stability,  and  wealth  of  the  government,  must  more 
and  more  fill  up  the  place  of  an  aristocracy,  and  undermine  that 
principle  of  self-government,  local  association,  and  municipal 
control  which  is  fundamental  to  the  theory  of  republican 
institutions,*  May  not  the  exclusive  support  of  some  institutions 
also  check  the  improvement  of  education,  by  destroying  the 
great  stimulus  to  all  progress,  namely  the  necessity  for 
exertion  arising  from  competition  and  rival  institutions  ?  Does 
not  such  exclusive  patronage  also  remove  the  teachers  of  the 
youth  of  a  country  from  an  immediate  responsibility  to  the 
people,  and  thus  convert  colleges,  as  Adam  Smith  says,  from 
being  the  seminaries,  into  the  dormitories  of  learning,  where, 
like  Rip  Van  Winkle,  they  wake  up  to  improvements  some 
centuries  after  they  have  been  discovered. f 

May  it  not  also  be  questioned  whether  the  Legislature  of 
any  State  is  the  most  competent  body  to  direct  its  education. 
Not  to  say  that  such  bodies  may  often  be  under  the  control  of 
their  least  educated  and  enlightened  members,  it  is  certain  that 
they  have  not  the  time  necessary  for  the  work,  while  local 
and  narrow  views  may  affect  their  whole  proceedings,  and  thus 
legalise,  stereotype,  and  perpetuate  an  erroneous,  defective,  or 
useless  system,  while  they  impede,  by  their  exclusive  endow- 
ments, the  progress  of  other  and   independent  institutions.:}:     And 

*  Democracy  in  America,  vol.  2.,  p.  325,  326,  339  and  342. 

t  Bacon  is  of  the  same  opinion,  "It  iiS  not  to  be  forgo!  ten,"  says  he,  "that 
the  dedicating  of  foundations  and  donations  to  professory  karning,  hath  not  only 
had  a  maliirn  influence  upon  the  growth  of  sciences,  but  hath  also  been  pre- 
judicial to  states  and  governments  ;  for  hence  it  proccedeth,  that  princes  find  a 
soUtude  in  respect  of  able  men  to  serve  them  in  causes  of  state,  because  there  is 
no  education  collegiate  which  is  free." 

In  his  "  TrtZi/','  Tfl/^,"  Hazlitt  expresses  himself  of  tlie  samo  opinion.  "Our 
universities,"  says  he,  "  are  in  a  great  measure  become  cisterns,  to  hold,  not 
conduits,  to  disperse  knowledge.  The  age  has  the  start  of  them  that  is,  other 
sources  of  knowledge  have  been  opened  since  their  formation,  to  which  the 
world  have  had  access,  and  have  drank  plentifully  at  these  living  fountains, 
from  which  they  are  debarred  by  the  tenour  of  their  charter,  and  as  a  matter  of 
dignity  and  privilege.  All  that  has  been  invented  or  thought  in  the  last  two 
hundred  years  they  take  no  cognizance  of,  or  as  little  as  possible;  they  are 
above  it ;  they  stand  upon  the  ancient  land-marks,  and  will  not  budge ;  whatever 
was  not  known  when  they  were  endowed,  they  are  still  in  profound  and  lofty 
ignorance  of." 

i  On  this  point  let  us  learn  instruction  from  the  English  State  UniTersitiei, 


32 

then  too,  may  it  not  be  argued  that  the  education  of  their  own 
minds,  and  those  of  their  children,  is  one  of  those  inalienable  rights 
which  can  never  be  given  up  by  any  individual,  or  by  any  body 
of  men,  and  one  of  those  rights  therefore,  which  is  not  given  up 
to  society,  and  with  which  its  legislators  have  no  right  to 
interfere  except  in  that  mode  of  voluntary  taxation  which  will 
allow  individual  opinion  to  promote  the  common  welfare,  and 
yet  to  secure  that  education  it  regards  as  essential  to  the 
welfare  of  its  own  children  ?  Besides,  can  any  man  show  that 
the  assumption  of  the  control,  and  the  endowment  of  some 
particular  Colleges,  and  other  schools,  out  of  many,  is  not  an 
incipient  alliance  between  the  State  and  certain  opinions  there 
inculcated,  which  may  be  either  religious  or  irreligious,  moral 
or  immoral  ?  Education  assuredly  cannot  be  neutral.  It  must 
either  be  Christian,  Jewish,  or  Infidel ;  and  as  Christian  either 
Presbyterian,  Romish  or  of  some  other  denominational  form. 
Hence  in  making  such  an  exclusive  selection,  the  State  must 
enter  into  alliance  with  one  or  other  of  those  forms ;  and  if  so, 
then  is  not  the  State  prepared,  whenever  the  majority  shall  will 
it,  to  ally  itself,  through  the  all-powerful  instrumentality  of  the 
education  of  the  leading  minds  of  the  people,  either  with  infidelity, 
or  with  some  form  of  religion,  since  there  is  no  alternative?  And 
if  it  is  objected  that  education  is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  a 
people,  and  cannot  be  adequately  supported  but  by  the  State 
then  it  may  be  replied,  that  religion  is  still  more  essential  and 
that  the  support  of  its  manifold  wants  requires  a  still  more 
munificent  endowment,   and  that  if  the  State  identifies  itself  with 

forlhey  arc  not  voluntary  or  independent  denominational  Colleo-es. 

In  the  Westminster  Review  for  September,  1814,  in  an  article  on  the  Ethics 
of  Politicians,  Lased  upon  the  report  of  ihe  Parliamentary  Conniiittec  on 
opening  letters,  which  practice  involves  say  they,  theft,  lying,  torgory,  tieachcry, 
rogue-making  wnd  tyrannous  injuslice,  says  ••  We  liave  long  conJidored  the 
state  of  our  Academical  and  University  education  to  be  the  cause  of  lialf  the 
errors  committed  in  legislation,  but  of  all  the  evils  to  be  traced  to  this  fruitful 
aource,  none  are  greater  than  the  moral  canker  they  occasion.  '1  he  ethics  of 
Archdeacon  Paley,  and  Professor  iScwel,— political  expediency  on  the|onefhand, 
and  blind  submission  to  authority  on  the  other,— the  transformations  of  Ovid  and 
the  history  of  the  Punic  wars,  leave  no  place  for  the  decalogue  or  any  sound 
interpretation  of  its  meaning;  and  the  result  in  after  life,  when  our  high-born 
University  graduates  appear  at  the  Council  board,  as  the  world  has  seen  with 
astonishment,  is  a  formal  rccogniuon  of  PETTY  LARCENY  as  a  fundamental 
maxim  of  State  policy."  p.  Ii7. 


33 

some    one  form  of  the  one,  it  ought  to  do  so  with  the  other  also.* 

•"  ' Tis  liberty  which  gives  the  flower 
A  fitting  life — its  lusture  and  perfume, 
And  we  are  weeds  without  it.      All  constraint, 
Except  what  WiiDowt  lays  on  evil  men,  is  evil — 
Hurts  their  faculties,  impedes  their  progress  , 

In  tiie  road  to  science, — and  begets, 
In  those  who  suffer  it,  the  sordid  mind, 
The  bestial  wish,  the  meagre  intellect, 
Unfit  to  be  the  tenant  of  man's  noble  form." 

But  waiving,  for  the  present,  this  argument, — which  we  merely 

present  for  the    consideration    of  inquiring    minds   and  not  as  in 

itself  necessary  to  our  conclusions,  nor  in  any  way  designed  as 

an   attack  upon  State  institutions  in  themselves  considered,:}:   and 

which  might  be  extended — may    we  not  affirm,  that  whatever  the 

State    may    attempt    to    do    on    the    subject   of    education  and 

of    colleges,    except    on    the      plan    of     an    equalized    support, 

it   cannot    provide     for    the    people     either    in    its    schools     or 

in    its  Colleges,    that  thorough,  proportionate,  and    efficient 

RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION     and    controul,    which    we    have    already 

seen    is  essential  in    order  to  reap  the  full    benefits  of  education. 

This   impossibility    arises    from   the  very    nature  of  the  case ; — 

from      the    genius     of     our     civil     constitution,    which      knows 

no  religious   party ;   from  the    existence  nevertheless,    of  various 

parties  in  the  State,  all  differing  on  the  subject  of  religion,  and 

all   tenaciously    adhesive  to    their   peculiarities    of  opinion ;    and 

from   the    utter    impracticability,    therefore,    of  identifying  itself 

either  with  no  religion,  or  with  Judaism,  Christianity,  or  Infidelity, 

without    at    the   same    time    allying    itself  with   one    party    and 

arraying    against  it  all  the    rest,  and  without    overthrowing    the 

cardinal  principles  of  our  free  institutions.     And  the  experiments 

made    on    this  subject,  by  almost   every    State    throughout    the 

counti'y,  have    universally    proved,  and    are  now  every  where  in 

glaring     evidence    demonstrating     the    fact,    that    it    is    utterly 

impossible  to  combine  with  any  State  institution, — whether  schools 

or  colleges, — a  direct,  systematic,   efficient    and    predominating 

religious  influence,   since   this  could   be   done  only  by  allowing 

*  See  Appendix  No.  1. 

t  By  this,  Cowper  here  unquestionably  means  piety,  or  evangelical  religion. 

^  t  Our  States,  in  the  absence  of  any  other  institutions,  and  in  the  existing 

^Ftews  of  Society,  could  not  have  done  better  than  they  have,  and  therefore  are 

deserving  of  great  praise.     But  of  course  if  better  informed  they  will  not 

be  aawilling  to  devise  even  more  liberal  things. 

3 


34 

some  one  denominational  system  to  be  energetically  carried  ov^ 
On  this  subject  it  is  unnecessary,  and  it  might  be  invidious,  to. 
dwell,  but  from  a  recent  extensive  tour  over  the  greater  portk» 
of  the  country,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  conviction  is  becoming 
very  general,  that  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  imbne 
its  education  with  a  decidedly  religious  character  is  Utopian  and 
vain,  and  cannot  be  sustained.* 

And  hence  we  are  brought  to  the  conclusion  that  since  educatioifc 
will  and  must  be  given  to  the  people ;  since  this  education,  to  be- 
beneficial  and  preservative  of  the  institutions  of  the  country, 
must  be  religious;  and  since  such  a  religious  education  cannot 
be  given  by  institutions  exclusively  partronized  by  the  State,  and 
therefore  avowedly  destitute  of  any  direct  and  efficient  religious; 
management,  instruction  and  controul ;  it  must  be  given  hy 
religious  denominations  themselves. 

To  this  conclusion,  however,  there  are  a  host  of  objections  all 
clamouring  for  audience,  and  like  the  winds  of  ^olus,  overwhelm- 
ing us  with  their  boisterous  confusion.     But  if  our   premises  arv 
immoveable,  and  our  conclusion    from  them  fairly  and  logically 
drawn,   then   all   such  objections  are    unavailing,  and    unworthy 
of  consideration.     There  is  nothing,— however  plain,  practieabie.. 
or  necessary,— against  which  objections  may  not  be  raised ;  and 
the   only  question  which    can    ever  be    entertained  by  the  eay  of  " 
true   wisdom   is,— Is  the  end  aimed    at  necessary  to   be  secured,, 
and   are  the  means   proposed  the  only    reasonable  or   practicablj- 
method  by  which  that  end  may  be  reached  ?      These  points  being 
determine.!,    it    has   no    more   to   say   to   the   thousand    queries 
whether  this  method  may  not  be  liable  to  difficulties ;  but  laying 
aside  all  such  enervating  discussions  and  dilettanti   reasonings,  h 
girds   itself  for  the  task  before  it,  and  gives  all  diligence  to  wJrfc 
out   the   end    proposed  by  every   means   in   its   power. 

Let  it  not  then  be  said,  that  this  scheme  is  impossihlc^ 
"Impossible,"  cried  Mirabeau  to  his  Secretary,  " never  iwk» 
to  me  that  blockhead  of  a  word."  What  is  there  which  prairtfi* 
and  manly  effort  might  not  actually  avail  to  accomplish.  THa 
first  of  all  things  then,  is  to  gird  ourselves  for  the   actual 

♦  See  Appendix  JNo.  2. 


35 

to  know  that  we  actually  cither  must  do,  or,  as  the  Irish  say, 
"  come  out  of  that."  "  It  is  not," — to  use  the  striking  words 
of  a  very  powerful  though  eccentric  writer,*  "  it  is  not  a  lucky 
word  this  same  impossible  :  no  good  comes  of  those  that  have 
it  so  often  in  their  mouth.  Who  is  he  that  says  always,  'there 
is  a  lion  in  the  way  V  Sluggard,  thou  must  slay  the  lion 
then  ;  the  way  has  to  be  travelled  !"  "  All  difficulty,  and  this 
difficulty  too,  is  as  a  nightmare ;  the  instant  you  begin  to  stir 
under  it,  the  difficulty  is,  properly  speaking,  gone.  Difficulty 
once  manfully  fronted  ceases  to  be  difficulty.  Once  rightly 
girded  up,  how  many  things  will  present  themselves  as  doable 
which  now  are  not  attemptible.'" 

What  Christian  denominations  then  ought  to  do,  they  can, — 
and  when  once  made  to  realize  their  obligations,  they  roill  do. 
The  power  of  Christian  principle  is  almost  omnipotent.  It  can 
accomplish  any  thing  but  impossibilities.  It  brings  into  operation 
every  power  and  principle  of  our  nature,  "  body,  soul  and 
spirit,"  which  are  all  considered  but  as  "a  reasonable  sacrifice." 
And  while  Christian  principle  thus  brings  to  bear  upon  the 
cause  it  supports,  all  the  might  of  man,  it  also  secures  the 
co-operation  of  the  still  mightier  power  of  God,  who  is  able 
to  work  in  his  people  to  do  whatsoever  is  in  accordance  with 
his  will.  Do  we  theorize  in  thus  speaking  ?  Nay,  we  speak 
as  wise  and  practical  men.  For  is  not  the  organization 
and  support  of  the  ministry,  the  erection  and  preservation  of 
churches,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel, 
an  immeasurably  greater  task  than  the  support  of  education, 
and  especially  of  a  few  Colleges?  If  Christianity  then  ac- 
complishes the  greater  work,  can  it  not  accomplish  the  less  ? 
And  if  it  was  able  to  achieve  the  former  task  even  in  the 
primitive  age  of  weakness,  poverty,  and  persecution,  how 
assuredly  can  it  do  this  now  in  an  age  of  peace,  prosperity, 
general  wealth,  and  unlimited  toleration  ?  Did  not  Christianity 
found  its  schools,  establish  its  seminaries,  endow  its  universities, 
and  form  even  its  literature,  in  the  very  earliest   ages  ?f     Were 

*  Carlyle's  Chartism,  p.  96  and  98  Eng.  Ed. 

t  That  the  entire  system  of  education  pursued  by  the  Jews  and  early 
Christians  was  denominational  is  bpyond  doubt.  The  Jewish  Synagogues 
had  all  schools  attached  to  them.     Christ  himself  and   his  Apostles  acted  oa 


36 

not  all   the  lights  of  science  and   education,  which  twinkled  in 

the  otherwise  dark  and  lurid  sky  of  the   middle  ages,  enkindled 

by  the  fire  of  piety    and  at  the  altar  of  religion  ?      Did  not  the 

morninfj    star    of  the    reformation    and    of  the    revival    of  letters 

rise   upon  Christian    minds,   and    shine  more   and  more  unto  the 

perfect   day   of  universal    enlightenment,   through   the  combined 

energies  of  those  mighty  men   whom  God  raised  up  to  regenerate 

the    world  ?       And    while    in     the    Medi-teval     age    there    were 

masnificient   universities   established,    and   that  too,    as   can    be 

clearly    shewn,    almost   exclusively   by    private   and    voluntary 

endowment,*  does    not  Monsieur  Villers, — himself  a  Frenchman 

and  a  Romanist — allow  that  Protestantism  has  founded  more  and 

better  colleges  than    Popery  ?f     Protestantism   sustains    itself  by 

knowledge,    and    its   two    great     auxilaries    are   the    school    and 

the    college.       In    Scotland    therefore,     in    England     among    the 

Dissenters,    in  the  New  England  colonies  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 

Christians  regarded  the  religiously  conducted  school  and  college 

as    equally    necessary  with    the    church   and    the    ministry,    and 

hence    have    their    colleges    been    munificently    endowed,   and 

successfully  carried  on  by  the  exclusive  efforts,    and  management 

of  these  Christian  bodies. ij:     And  has   not   the   Free    Church  of 

Scotland,     besides     building     near     seven     hundred     churches, 

supporting    as    many    ministers,    and    providing    largely    for    its 

colonial   and    missionary    schemes,    actually    secured   the  means 

to  establish    a  school   and  a    parsonage    in  every  parish,  and  to 

endow  a   college,  with  the  necessary  apparatus,  library,  buildings 

and    revenue  ?      Are   not   the  Congregationalists,   Presbyterians 

and    Methodists  in  England,   the    Presbyterians  in  Ireland,    and 

the    Presbyterians    in    almost  every  State    in   the  Union,    where 

they  have  not    already    an    institution,    engaged    in    the    same 

glorious    enterprise    of    founding    and    endowing    colleges    and 

seminaries  of  their  own  ? 

The   scheme,  therefore,  of   denominational   education,    is    as 

this  plan.  Hence  the  number  of  presbyters  in  every  cliurch.  Hence  the 
distinct  office  of  teachers  in  the  Apostolic  and  early  rhurches.  And  hence  the 
number  of  tlieir  schools.  See  Biblical  Repertory  for  Jan.  1844,  p.  9, 17.  Rid- 
dle's Christian  Antiquities;  Dr.  Howe  on  Theological  Seminaries,  &c. 

*  See  Dr.  Pusey's  Work  on  Cathedral  Instituttions. 

+  Essay  on  the  Reformation,  p.  230,  232. 

t  See  Dr.  Laings  "  Religion  and  Education  in  America,"  p.  G3.  Baird's 
Religion  in  America,  ch.  xiii.,  p.  337,  Eng.  Ed. 


37 

practicable,  as  it  is   essential  to  the  purity  and  the  permanence 
of  our    free  institutions.      All  that    is  necessary    to   secure   its 
full  and  perfect  accomplishment,   is  to  establish  its  religious    and 
obligatory  character    in    the   minds  of  Christians  generally,  and 
then    the     stream     of     benevolence,    which    is    seeking     in    its 
deep  and  broad  channels  the    most  distant  and  desert  regions  of 
the  earth,  will  not  fail  to  supply  the   fountains  of  our  home  educa- 
tion with  the   water  of  life   and   the  bread  of  Heaven,   instead  of 
the  husks   of  barren  science,   and  the  poison   of  an   irreligious, 
or    partially  religious,  education.      Besides,    is  it  not    probable 
that   when  our  legislators    come   to    examine    the  subject    fully 
and  impartially,    an  equalized    plan  may  be  adopted,  by  which 
such     institutions     may     receive     that   measure    of    the    public 
support  to  which  they  are  assuredly  entitled,  since  they  represent 
the  convictions  and    the  wishes    of  those    citizens    whose    views 
of  education  they  are  intended  to  carry  out. 

But  it   may  be   thought  this  system  will  lead    to    all  the  evils 
of  a   bigotted  sectarianism,  and   is  thus  opposed  to  the  genius  of 
our    institutions.       To    this  objection    we    reply    first,    that    we 
have  shown    that    it  is  the  necessary   and  unavoidable  tendency 
of    institutions    exclusively     supported    by     the  State,    to    ally 
themselves   with  some    one  sect,    either    religious  or  irreligious, 
or  otherwise,  as   is  most  generally  the  case,   to  lose   the  benefit 
of   any    efficient    religious    influence    and    controul ;     and     will 
any   man  deny,   that  any  possible  evils  of  sectarianism    are  in- 
finitely to  be  preferred,   to  the  certainly    destructive    results    of 
an    irreligious  or  a   non-religious    education?      But    will    such 
evils,  I  ask,    necessarily  arise    from  denominational  education  ? 
That  these  evils  do  exist,  and  that  they  are  found  to  exist,  and 
that   too,  in    a    State    of  ignition    and     violent    commotion,     and 
not    of  cool    repose,    even    among    the    students    of   our    State 
institutions,  we  all   know  ;    and    they    do    in  fact    thus    appear 
among    us,    not  because  of  the    diffusion    of  true,     and  sincere, 
and  well-instructed     piety,    but    because    of  the    want  of  such 
piety,  and  of  the  existence,  in  its  stead,  of  a  nominal,  superficial, 
and  therefore  bigotted  Christianism.     Bigotry  and    Sectarianism 
are    the  invariable     results    of  an    ill-informed,    ignorant,     and 
mere     nominal     Christianity  ;     while     liberality,    charity,     and 


38 

mutual    forbearance,  are  as   surely  the  fruits  of  a  deep,  sincere 
and  thoroughly    instructed  piety.     The   way  therefore   to  under- 
mine  sectarianism  and  bigotry,  is  to  imbue  education  thoroughly 
with  the  spirit  and  principles    of  true   religion,    which   will    in 
every  case  be  found,  in  proportion  to  its  purity,  to  be  peaceable, 
gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  and  full  of  mercy,  kindly  affectioned 
towards    all   men,    and  full    of  that   charity    which    hopeth    all 
things,  and  beareth  all    things.      Pure    and    undefiled    religion 
will  thus  root  out    sectarianism  and    party-spirit,  and  substitute 
in  their  place,  zeal  for  the    glory  of  God  and  "the  salvation  of 
man.     This  is  the  true  foe  to  intolerance,  persecution,  and  illib- 
erality  towards  a  dilFerence  of  opinion,  since  it    makes  its  pos- 
sessor happy  and  contented ;  well  established  in  his  own  mind ; 
convinced     that    it    is    not  his  office    to    judge    another   man's 
servant,  since    to  his  own   master  each  individual  must  give  an 
account ;    and  that  instead  of  making  enemies  of  those  who  differ 
from  him,  he  must  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  he  may  thus 
lead  them  to  a  candid  examination  of  his  own  views. 

Such  icould  le  the  result  of  a  deep,  well  read,  well  instructed 
religious  education  in  contrast  with  that  nominal    and  imperfect 
religious    education    which    has    so  generally  abused  the  name, 
and    brought  discredit    on    the  cause,  of  Christianity.     And  that 
such  has  been  the  effect  of  a  thorough  religious  influence  in  the 
schools  and  colleges  of  a  land,  we    may  appeal  for  evidence  to 
the  growing  enlargement  and  liberality  of  views,— the  kind  and 
gentlemanly  deportment  as  citizens  of  the  civil  polity  and  mem- 
bers of  the  social  circle,  and  the    charity    and  good-will  as  fel- 
low   citizens    in    the  commonwealth    of    Zion, — which    charac- 
terizes the  alumni    of  our   New    England    institutions,    and  the 
present  members  of  the  Free   Church  of  Scotland,  whose  hearts 
have  been    found  as   open,  large   and   free   as   their  hands,  and 
who    are    as    dintinguished     for  their    liberality    and    enlarged 
philanthropy,    as    they  are     for    their  piety.       Besides,    it    may 
be    clearly  shown    that    different   denominations    are    made    to 
serve   the  same    good   ends  in    the  State,    that  thev   do    in  the 
church;— that    thoy  are    at   once    the    results    and    the    causes 
of    freedom    of    opinion    and    of    action  ; — that    thoy    are    the 
best    safeguards  of    purity    and    liberty; — the    most    powerful 


39 


amtagonists  of  centralized  power,  and  therefore  of  consolidated 
.despotism  ;— that  they  prevent  that  stereotyped  assimilation  of 
■ebaracter,  opinion  and  manners  which  operates  like  a  moral 
stagnation  or  quagmire  upon  society; — that  they  keep  the 
waters  of  society  in  a  natural  and  constant  motion,  and 
tlms  presei-ve  it  from  those  earthquake-convulsions  which  are 
Sfee  result  of  long  confined  and  accumulated  forces ; — that  they 
topeai  up  more  numerous  opportunities  for  advancement,  and 
&T1S  stimulate  industry  and  give  impulse  to  budding  genius;— 
«h&t  they  secure  greater  activity,  energy,  enterprise,  and  com- 
gieXition ;— that  they  give  birth  to  the  only  principles  which 
gfa%'e  self-devotion  and  power  sufficient  to  cope  with  infidelity  ;— 
aiad  that  there  must  therefore  be  parties  in  the  spiritual  theocracy 
il  we  would  have  a  pure,  free,  and  lasting  political  democracy* 

But  it  ouo-ht  still  further  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  denonunational 
edttcation,  at  least    so  far  as  it  regards    presbyterianism,  is  not 
^edarian  education.      The   end  aimed    at,   and  which  we  have 
rk&wa  to  be  absolutely  necessary    to  the  best  interests  of  society, 
as  the  thorough  religious  education  of  the    people   in   contradis- 
Sij-iction    to    their    mere     instruction    in     certain    comparatively 
smmportant  branches ;  and  this   end,  we   have  seen,    cannot   be 
asescured  by    a   State  education  nor   by    any    attempted  union  of 
.iigerent  religious    bodies,    and    must    therefore    be    attained,  if 
attained  all,    by  the    efficient    and   harmonious    eflfects    of  some 
«ise  denomination.     As   therefore,  by  a  State  education  I  mean 
afeKt  which  is    not    only  patronized  by,  but  is  under  the  direction 
smA  regulating  controul  of  the  State ;  so   by    a    denominational 
«aBcation,  I   mean   that   which  is  under  the  efficient  controul  and 
«fiirection  of  some  religious  denomination,  to  which  it  looks  there- 
Srore  as  the   chief  source   of  permanent  endowment.     The   end 
aeiaed  at   therefore,  is    not  to  make  sectarianized  pupils,  but   to 
s«.cure  an  efficient   religious   government   and   discipline,  and  a 
OJKi-se  of  instruction   thoroughly   imbued    and   pervaded  by  the 
aald  and  heavenly   influence   of  religious   truth.     The    basis  on 
iwfelch  such  institutions  are  to   be  erected,  is   not  any  one  eccle- 
aaastieal  system   in  all   its    minute  peculiarities,    but  that   truly 
Ottholic   foundation,— THE  Bible,    the  whole  Bible,— including 
*  See  Duff  on  India  and  India  Missions,  p.  573,534,  539. 


40 


which  we  have  all    religion,  and  excluding  which  we  have  none. 
But  as  this  basis    itself  admits   of  varying  construction,   in  order 
to  give  its   influence    unbroken  and   undivided  efl'ect,   it  must  be 
exhibited    through   the   interpretation    of  some  one  denomination. 
Now  it  must  be    admitted   that  in   this  respect  the    Presbyterian 
Church    stands    eminently   distinguished    among    other  denomi- 
nations ;  and   that  while  she  is  too  commonly  believed  to  be  the 
most  narrow,   bigotted  and   peculiar  in  her  doctrinal   views,  she 
is  in   reality   most   Catholic  and  liberal,   and   eminently  adapted 
to  be   the   guardian   and  patron   of  a  religious  education.     Tl\o 
Presbyterian  Church   can   endow  and  govern   educational  insti- 
tutions without  making  them  necessarily  or  essentially,  seminaries 
teaching  presbyterianism.     The   entire  standards  of  our  church, 
which   contain    the    complete    code   of  our  doctrinal   views   and 
ecclesiastical    polity,    are  not   regarded    as   necessary   terms   of 
general     membership   and  christian   communion,    but   are    only 
imposed  as  the   necessary  terms  of  ruling  and  ministerial  oflice- 
bearing  in  the  church  ;*     and  since  therefore  our   only   terms   of 
communion  are  the  fundamental    truths   of    the  gospel  and    the 
evidences   of  personal    piety,    our    basis    for    a    denominational 
education  is  as  broad,  as  free,   and  as  catholic,  as  that  of  God*s 
own  blessed  word.     The    wisdom  of  our  fathers  is  thus  stamped, 
in  preeminent  glory,    upon    the  elementary  or   school   catechism 
which  is  designed  and  adapted    for   the   instruction  of    all    the- 
members   of  our   church,   and   of  the  young    generally.      TI,e 
school    catechisms    of  the   Episcopal,    Romish    and   some  other 
churches,    embody    the     most     peculiar     doctrines    and     cere- 
monies of  those    churches.f       To  introduce    them    into    schools 
and    colleges   is   therefore,    to   stamp   such    institutions    with    a 
sectarian,    and  not   merely   with  a  religious    character,    and   to 
shut    the   door    against    all    other    denominations.      Our   school 
catechism  however,    (as  is  true  also  of  our  larger  catechism  and 
confession  of  faith)  is  purely  doctrinal.     "  It  contains  a  summary 

•See  Dr.  Janeways  Sermon  on  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Introduction  anj 
p.  32.  Hill's  Institutes  o(  the  church  of  Scothmd,  p.  15U,  153.  Dr.  Carlile 
of  Irel.ind  on  the  use  and  abuse  of  Creeds  or  Confessions,  p.  24,  &c.  Directwy 
for  Worship,  ch.  7  iv  p.  499.  Bib.  Repertory  p.  402  for  1H40,  and  for  Oct.  of 
same  year.  Hodges  Hist,  of  the  Presb  Church,  vol.  ii.  p.  271,  305,  351,  33ft. 
Dunlap's  Confessions  of  Faith  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  p  'cxiii.'  &c., 
cix,  XXXV.  tThis  does  not  include  the  Methodist  Churcfel 


41 

remarkably   lucid  in  its  order,  and   comprehensive   in  its  state- 
ments  of  Divine   truth ;  but  it  contains  nothing  more.     It  leaves 
the     door   open    to    men    of    all    denominations    who    hold    the 
great    fundamental  doctrines  of  our    faith.      This  is    abundantly- 
manifest  from   the   fact    that    the   shorter  catechism    is   a  class- 
book  in  almost  every  school   in  Scotland."     And  as    it   regards 
the  doctrines  themselves,  while  they  are  now  commonly  denom- 
inated  Calvinistic    from  the  able    exposition   given   of  them    by 
the   immortal   Calvin,  yet  they  are  not,  and  never  can  have  been 
peculiar  to  Presbyterianism,  as  that  term   is  understood.     They 
were  the    doctrines  of  the    primitive  churches  of  Great    Britain 
and  Ireland.      They   were    taught   by  the   early    fathers,    and 
developed    in    all    their    peculiarity    by    the    great    Augustine. 
They   have  ever  been   held   by   the    purest,  the   most   learned, 
and  the  most   pious  party   in   the  Romish   Church,  and  by  the 
Waldenses,  and  all  other  witnesses  who  testified  to  the  truth  during 
the  middle  ages.    They  were  the   undoubted  and  universal  creed 
of  the    English  as  well  as    of  all  the  continental    reformers,  and 
the  avowed  tenets   taught  till   the   time  of  James   the  II,  in  the 
English   Univershies.      They   have   continued    to    be    the    faith 
of  the  most  burning    and  shining    lights    in    the    English    church 
until  the  present  hour,  and    of  all  who    are  termed    evangelical 
throughout  the  world ;  and  they  are  the  views  of  all   the   sound 
portion   of    the   Baptist   and    Congregational    churches   both    in 
England    and     America.       By    making    these    views   therefore, 
the'basis  of  our  teaching,  we  take  that  creed  which  a  great  part^ 
of  the    pure  church  of  God,    in    all    ages    and  countries,  and    of 
all  denominations,  has  agreed  in  receiving  as  the  cracd  taught  by 
the  Holy  Scriptures. 

And  however  objectionable  some  of  these  doctrines  may  be  to 
those  who  either  do  not  understand,  or  who  misunderstand  them, 
it  could  be  shown,  if  time  permitted,  that  they  have  commended 
themselves,  as  I  have  elsewhere  proved,  even  to  philosophers  and 
free  thinkers,  as  most  powerful  in  giving  to  a  people  energy,  and 
virtue,  and  political  honesty,  and  military  daring,  and  an  indomi- 
table thirst  for  liberty,  which  led  its  possessors,  either,  as  freeman 
to  stand,  or  freeman  to  fall ;  and  that  they  have  ever  produced  the 


42 


most  .steady,  moral,  peaceable,  and  law-sustaining  community  * 
When  therefore,  Europe  lay  buried  in  darkness,  it  was  from 
the  Presbyterian  colleges  of  Joua  and  Armagh,  where  thousands 
of  students  could  be  gratuitously  supported  at  one  time,  that  her 
scholars,  teachers,  ministers  and  professors  were  supplied.  And 
when  this  country  was  in  its  period  of  infancy,  it  was  to  the 
Presbyterian  schools  and  colleges  of  Scotland,  Ireland  and 
Holland,  she  was  indebted  for  much  of  her  learning,  and  for 
many  of  those  ministers,  teachers  and  literati,  whose  influence 
contmues  to  shed  a  growing  radiance  over  the  whole  intellectual 
and  social  community. 

In  raising   therefore,  a  Southern  Presbyterian  University  under 
Presbyterian   supervision,    and   upon  the   basis   of    Presbyterian 
doctrines    and     the    religious    influence    they    are    adapted    to 
exert,    we    enter    upon     no     Utopian     or    untried    experiment, 
but     upon    one   sustained    by    the    experience    of    all    ages,  of 
all   countries,    and    of   all   impartial    judges.      The    foundation 
has   been    laid    broad    and    deep,   amid    many   difiiculties    and 
discouragements,    but    in    trusting     faith,    unyielding    firmness, 
and  buoyant  hope.     Its  progress  is  slow,  but  we  trust  sure.     And 
is  not  this  the  law   and  the  evidence  of  whatever  is  destined  to  be 
great  and    permanent?       The  young    immortal  is  left   for    many 
long  and  helpless  years  to  depend    upon  the   care  and  guidance 
of  others,  while  inferior  animals  arrive   at  once  at  comparative 
matunly    and   independence  ;     and   the  oak    which    is    to     last 
for    centuries,   comes    forth    in    feebleness,     rises    slowly    from 
the  eaith,  and  is  only  rooted  and    strengthened  by  the  repeated 
shocks  of  the  wintry  tempest.     And    bus   not  every   great  man 
been   born  in    adversity,  nurtured   in    hardship,   and  thus  taught 
those  lessons    of  energy,  perseverance,  and  indomitable  purpose 
which  have  elevated    him    to  the    highest    rank  of   intelligence 
and  fame  ?      Now,  as  it  is    with  individuals,  so  is  it  also'with 
institutions,— "whom  God  loves  he  chastens,  and  causes  to  bear 
the    yoke  in  their  youth."      From    our    present  difficulties    and 

*  S.'e  the  opinions  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,   Bancroft,  and  others  in   the 
uuth.Ms  work  on    '  EcrlesinsticHl    li.pnhlicanisn,,"  p.   54    Gl     ieoalso    the 

8e:£sT4^'2",,'^''7;'l!'^"*"  f-'-'ny-"  P-  20e/2G4.  and- Dr" etch  r' 
ril?     rf;        •.  ^•'i-'''"'^  'ho  i.niols  at  p.  231,  and  see  a'so  Appendix  where  the 
eHTects  of  these  doctrines  on  Literature  is  shown.  ^ 


43 

struggles  and  many  disappointments,  let  us,  therefore,  derive 
encouragement,  and  be  stimulated  to  self-denying  effort.  The 
young  Hercules,  though  yet  in  his  cradle,  has  given  you  to-day, 
and  on  similar  occasions,  some  manifestation  of  his  future 
strength  and  vigour;  and  confident  from  the  history  of  the  past, 
enduring  all  things  for  the  present,  and  hoping  all  things  for 
the  time  to  come,  Ogelthorpe  University  waits  but  the  opportunity 
of  proclaiming  her  principles  and  exemplifying  her  merits,  to 
receive  that  favour  and  support  which  will  secure  for  her 
complete  success,  and  place  upon  her  summit  the  last 
top  stone,  amid  the  triumphal  praises  of  grateful  thousands  to 
Him  who  has  crowned  her  with  glory  and  honour. 

May    it    be    a    gem    in     your     future     crowns,    my     young 
friends,  that  you  were  among  the    first  alumni  of  this  honoured 
University.      May    it    be  your  pride    while    you  live  to  do  her 
reverence,   and  your  high  ambition  to   reflect    honour  upon  her 
by  lives  eminent  for  patriotism  and  piety.       May  it  be  your  highest 
gratification,  according  to  your  ability,  in  after  life  to  add  some 
stone  to  her  rising  grandeur,  to  enlarge  the  means  and  instrumen- 
tality of  her  success,  and  thus  to  leave  her  under  lasting  obligation 
to  cherish  your  memory,  and  revere  your  character.     And  thus 
may  you  enable    her  to    prove  to    the  country    and  the    world, 
that  the  voluntary  principle, — that  cardinal  element  in  our  free 
and  tolerant  institutions, — is  as  powerful  and  as  successful  as  it 
reo-ards  education,  as   it  is  in  reference  to  religion  ;  and  that  it 
can  give  birth  to  as  eminent  colleges,  well  trained  and  enlightened 
students,  and  able    and    patriotic    citizens,    as    it  can    stud    the 
land   with  beautiful  churches,  and  imbue  the  minds  of  its  ever- 
growing    population    with  the  pure    and  life-giving  principles  of 
heavenly  truth. 


44 

No.  1. 

APPENDIX. 

I  beg  to  call  especial  attention  to  the    following  extract  from  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  author  by  an  eminent  chancellor  in  this  State. 
"  I  have,"  says  he,  "  a  settled  conviction  that  all  efforts  to  educate 
the  youth  of  the  country  by  the  state,  will,  in  the  end,  prove  worse 
than  unavailing.     If  it  be  true,  as  beyond  contradiction,  it  is,  that 
the  only  firm  foundation  of  social  happiness  and  prosperity  consists 
in  an  early  and  deep-rooted  inculcation  of  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity j  It  follows,  of  course,  that  state  education  must  fail.     Con- 
fined    to   empty  generalities  by  the    fear  of  offending  against,  or 
trenching  upon  the  great  diversity  of  sectarian  doctrines  and  preju- 
dices, which  must  ever  obtain  in  a  free  country,  the  subject"  of 
education  must  be  left  by  their  public  enactments  in  a  state  little 
short  of  positive  indifference,  upon  the  subject  of  religion.     The 
position  of  the  instructor  must  be  one  of  necessary  neutrality.     He 
dare  not  deepen  any  religious  impression  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil, 
lest  he  should  be  accused  of  a  sectarian,  proselyting  spirit :  and,  if 
it  be  forbidden  by  circumstances,  to  urge  home  thelruth  in  all  its 
strength  and  vividness  upon  the  heart  and  conscience  of  one  who  is 
the  subject  of  these  impressions,  is  it  not  evident,  from  every  man's 
experience,  that  the  impressions  themselves  will  evaporate  in  empty 
air,  and  leave  this  subject  more  impervious  to  the  sense  of  relifnous 
obligation  than  if  he  had  never  experienced  them  ?  — Those%vho 
hope  to   convey  religious  instruction  in   general   terms, — that  is, 
as  it  is  sometimes  expressed,  to  convey  the  elements  of  a  liberal 
and  enlightened  religion  to  the  minds  of  youth,  without  the  admix- 
ture of  a  specific  creed,  are  much  mistaken.     Such  a  ihinir  was 
never  done,  and  never  will  be  done.     The  heart  can  only  sefze.  in 
the  first  instance,  upon  truth  in  some  determinate  shape.   General, 
indefinite  truth,  never  yet  made  the  originaJ  impression.     The  first 
impression  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  specific.     The  process 
of  generalization  takes  place  afterwards.     The  affections  enlarge, 
the  hecyt  becomes  liberalized,  and  a  genuine  liberality,  and  a  caUi- 
olic  spirit,  spring  up  wherever  there  is   true  piety  ;   but  this   piety 
is  always  found  to  originate  in  particulars,  and  not  in  abstractions'. 
I  sincerely  believe  that  education  will   be  most  successful   when 
left"  to  denominational  superintendence." 


No.  2. 


"  Much  is  said,"  says  the  New  England  Puritan,  "  of  the 
need  of  a  more  thorough  education  of  the  wliole  people, 
as  a  means  of  preserving  our  free  institutions.  But  many 
whose  zeal  in  the  cause  of  general  education  is  worthy 
of  all  praise,  have  sadly  mistaken  the  way  of  accomplishing  the 
object  which  they  have  so  much  at  heart.  "  For  while  they  incuU 


45 

cate  the  importance  of  popular  education,  they  are  working  a 
divorce  between  education  and  religion— are  pleading  for  the 
exclusion  of  the  Bible,  and  all  effective  religious  teaching,  from 
our  public  schools.  But  it  is  clear,,  that  the  education  which 
made  this  nation  a  nation  of  freemen,  was  an  education  in  common 
schools,  in  which  evangelical  religion  was  taught,  and  in  which 
the  Bible  was  the  common  reading  book  :  and  that  was  just  the 
opposite  of  that  system  towards  which  we  are  now  tending— a 
system  which  excludes  all  religious  teaching  except  a  few 
negatives  and  generalities,  which  can  have  no  effect  in  the  forma- 
tion of  character,  unless  it  be  to  foster  a  spirit  of  indifferentism. 
and  rear  a  generation  of  Notiiingarians.  Such  a  system  of 
education  is  a  system   of  warfare    upon    evangelical  religion. 

But  if  it  be  so,  it  is  no  hopeful  way  of  preserving  our  republican 
institutions.  For  if  we  follow  the  lights  of  history  we  shall  find 
that  evangelical  religion  has  been  the  foster-mother,  both  of  political 
freedom  "and  sound  and  efficient  literature.  In  no  period  have  the 
Calvinistic  doctrines  prevailed  in  England,  as  they  did  at,  and 
just  before  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  parliament  ot 
"England,  which  deposed  King  Charles,  and  called  the  Westmin- 
ster' Assembly  of  Divines,  may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  index  of  the 
prevailin^  religious  sentiment  of  the  nation  at  that  time  :  and  the 
Westminlter  Catechism,  framed  by  that  Assembly  of  their 
choice,  and  adopted  by  the  Parliament,  tells  what  doctrines  the 
majority  of  the  English  nation  then  held.  It  seems,  that  from 
the  time  of  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  till  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Commonwealth,  the  tone  of  evangelical  doctrine 
had  been  rising;  and  a  careful  observer  of  the  progress  of 
events,  may  see  that  it  was  the  spreading  doctrine  of  Calvin- 
ism that  exerted  a  leading  agency  in  breaking  up  the  despotism 
of  the  semi-papal  monarchs  then  upon  the  throne. 

And  then  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  these  days  of  England's 
Calvinism    were   the   golden  age  of  England's  literature.     The 
Edinburgh    Review,    an    unexceptionable    witness    in    such    a 
matter,  says,  [Vol.  18,  page  275,]  "  There  never  was  anything 
like  the  sixty  or  seventy  years  which    elapsed  from  the  middle 
of  Elizabeth's    reign  to  the    period  of  the    restoration.     In  point 
of   real    force    and   originality    of  genius,    neither   the    age    of 
Pericles,  nor  the  age  oif  Augustus,  nor  the  time  of  Leo  X.,  nor 
of  Louis  XIV.,  can    come  at  all  into  comparison  of  it.     For  in 
that  short  period   tve   shall  find  the  names  of  nearly  all  the  very 
great  men  that  this  nation  ccer  produced,— the  names  of  Shakes- 
peare,   Bacon,     Spencer,    Sydney,     Hooker,    Taylor,    Barrow, 
Raleigh,  Napier,  Hobbes,  and  many  others."     To  these  should 
be    added  Milton,    Owen,  Baxter,   Bunyan,   Calamy,    Lightfoot, 
Gataker,    Ainsworth,    Bates,    Charnock,    Howe,    Selden,    Hale, 
Twisse,    and    others.     Lorimer,   in   his    Protestant    Church    of 
France,    says :— "  It    is    a    remarkable    fact,    as    showing    the 
connection  between    evangelical    religion    and  the  higher  mani- 
festations of  mind,  that  no  persons  of  national  greatness  appeared, 


46 


from  the  restoration  to  the  revolution— the  dav.s  of  irrelicrion 
and  vice  and  persecution-and  that  in  one  department  at  least! 
of  h  erature,  m  the  18th  century— that  of  poetrv-the  first  to 
break  loose  from  the  tame  formalism  of  the  'age  was  the 
evangelical  Covvper."  =■  ' 

Thus  do  we  read  in  the  history  of  England,  that  evangelical 
religion  gives  force  and  life  to'  a  national  literature,  Tnia 
national  freedom;  and  that  the  negative  religion,  ;ow  so 
fashionable  in  some  quarters,  destroys  it.  We  niirrln  deprive 
he  same  instruction  from  the  histor/  of  Scotland.  It  was  the 
thunder  of  John  Knox  that  shook  down  the  fabric  of  tyranny 
and  popery  in  that  noble  little  kingdom  ;  and  Calvinism 
furnishc.1  Knox  the  magazines  of  his  thunde'r.  Calvinism  Z 
a  like  work  for  Switzerland,  the  adopted  country  of  Calvin- 
and  we  need  not  occupy  time  in  showing  how  the  doctrines  of 
the  reformation  wrought  for  liberty,  and  nursed  its  gro^^th  in 
Holland,    and  many   of  the  German  States. 

If,  then,  any  one  wishes  to  invigorate  and  restore  the  litera- 
ture of  the  country— if  he  wishes  to  impart  new  power  to  our 
means  of  education,  let  him  seek  to  remove  every  hindrance 
to  thorough  religious  teaching ;  let  him  admit  the  principle 
that  mora  s  cannot  be  effectually  taught  and  enforced,  withou 
evangelical  motives  ;._in  short  let  him  cease  to  put  asunder 
what  God  has  joined  together,  and  then  he  will  have  less 
reason  to  despair  of  the  Republic.  But  if,  trampling  on  the 
lights  of  history,  and  rejecting  all  the  results  of  the  M-orld's 
experience,  our  patriots  and  patrons  of  education  still  hucr  the 
theory,  that  education,  cut  and  squared  is  the  only  remedy  — 
and  if  they  are  suffered  to  sway  the  precious  int"«>rests  of  our 
national  education,  then  the  gloomiest  ' forebodings  will  be 
worse  than  realized.  Then  our  nation's  history  may  be 
written  in   this  one   sentence  ;— Vital  Christianity'reared  on 

THIS     GROUND     A     NATION     OF     FREEMEN;     AND      ITS     ENEMIES     AND 
FALSE    FRIENDS    PULLED    IT    DOWN. 


No.   3. 

Since  writing  and  delivering  the  foregoing,  I  have  found  the 
following  concurring  views  in  papers  received  during  my  absence. 
The  New  York  Evangelist  after  showing  the  necessity  of  Denomi- 
national  Common  Schools,  says : — 

"  Now,  is  there  any  real  impracticability  in  such  a  plan  ?  Nay 
might  not  the  Public  School  Fund  itself  contribute  to  such  a  plan' 
by  being  apportioned  properly,  for  charity,  to  the  schools  connected 
with  each  church,  without  any  distinction  of  sect?  The  Public 
School  system,  in  this  way,  would  see  to  it  that  in  each  church 
there  was  provision  for  the  education  of  all,  wliile  the  appointment 
of  teachers,  and  the  arrangement  of  a  system  of  instruction,  would 


47 

be  with  each  sect,  and  more  under  control  of  the  parents  themselves, 
and  of  individuals  whose  attainments  and  intelligence  might  fit 
them  for  the  work. 

"  We  believe  that  the  voluntary  principle  would  work  as  well 
and  as  happily  in  education  as  in  religion.  At  all  events,  if  our 
public  system  of  education  is  in  danger  of  running  into  a  negative 
but  practical  infidelity — if  there  is  to  prevail  in  it  a  jealousy  of  the 
Bible — if  everything's  to  be  taught  in  it  hut  religion,  and  religion 
is  to  be  excluded  on  the  plea  and  pretence  of  sectarianism,  we  say, 
perish  such  a  system,  for  our  country  would  be  ruined  by  it.  It  is 
time  that  this  matter  be  looked  to.  Let  those  who  wish  an  infidel 
education  for  their  children,  set  up  infidel  schools;  but  let  not  the 
Public  School  system  of  education  be  thrown  into  the  hands  of  ir- 
reiglious  men,  or  neutralized  of  all  religious  influence,  or  rendered 
absolutely  pernicious  by  the  exclusion  of  religion,  on  account  of 
the  cry  of  sectarianism  by  infidels  and  sectarians. 

"  A  system  of  education  is  somewhere  rotten,  which  even  affords 
a  possible  opportunity  to  infidel  demagogues  to  agitate  in  it  for  the 
exclusion  of  the  Scriptures.  A  system  of  education  is  rotten,  and 
must  be  injurious,  which  can  become  a  bone  of  contention  between 
political  parties,  or  in  which  teachers  are  established,  and  branch- 
es and  books  appointed  to  be  taught  according  to  political  bias  and 
favouritism..  It  is  a  fearful  thing  indeed,  if  the  education  of  our 
children,  the  system  by  which  their  character  and  destiny  for  life, 
and  perhaps  for  eternity,  are  to  be  formed,  is  to  be  made  a  foot-ball, 
to  be  kicked  about  by  "the  miserable  stPJggles  of  opposing  political 
parties.  All  boards  of  education  and  bands  of  commissioners  had 
better  be  in  the  salt  sea  sunk,  and  the  business  of  instruction  lelt  in 
chaos,  except  so  far  as  private  benevolence  may  take  charge  of  it, 
than  to  have  these  sacred  interests  become  the  spoils  of  party,  and 
the  tools  of  intrigue  and  influence. 

"  The  very  possibility  of  tliis  is  frightful.  On.->  thing  is  certain. 
The  business  of  education  in  our  country  may  far  more  safely  be 
trusted  to  the  religion  of  our  country,  than  to  tiio  politics  of  party 
in  our  country.  Politics  may  exclude  religion,  may  court  secta- 
rianism, may  corrupt  the  system  of  education  to  buy  a  sect ;  and. 
mere  politics  never  did  and  never  will  care  on"  farthing  for  the 
real  interests  of  the  soul,  or  the  higher  objects  of  education,  either 
for  time  or  eternity.  But  religion  will  sanctify  education,  and  in 
any  case  will  not,  cannot,  leave  the  children  of  our  country  without 
an  education,  or  educate  them  in  a  practical  infidelity.  The 
subject  is  a  great  and  important  one.  We  li.'.'pe  the  attention  of 
Christians  will  be  more  awakened  to  it,  and  vigilantly  fixed  upon  it." 

And  in  a  Report  recently  presented  to  the  New  Jersey  Society 

for  the  improvement  of  Common  Schools  in  urging  the  same  plan  it 

is  said  : 

"  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  our  religious  and  moral  citizens, 
"Who  esteem  the  Bible  the  great  charter  of  our  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  will  consent  to  have   religion  divorced  from  our  public 


48 

schools  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  state  system  of  instruction. 
In  our  Northern  and  Middle  States  these  form  the  majority  of  our 
citizens.  They  pay  nine-tenths  of  our  taxes,  and  are  the  main 
pillars  of  all  our  institutions.  And  because  they  make  less  noise 
than  the  infidel  and  the  papist,  and  make  less  effort  to  act  in  concert 
for  political  and  party  purposes,  our  legislatures  seem  more  dis- 
posed to  overlook  their  interests,  and  to  disregard  their  wishes. 
But  when  the  choice  is  fairly  presented  to  educate  their  children 
under  that  system  of  compromise  which  our  State  schools  require, 
and  which  so  carefully  sifts  out  every  thing  like  evangelical  reli- 
gion, or  to  break  up  those  systems,  they  cannot  long  hesitate.  It  is 
too  vast  a  sacrifice  to  require  the  three-fbui-ths  of  the  children  of  a 
state  to  be  educated  infidels,  that  the  other  one-fourth  may  not  be 
instructed  in  the  Christian  religion.  All  the  moral,  civil,  social, 
temporal,  eternal  interests  of  man  forbid  sucli  a  sacrifice."  "  So 
that  as  our  state  systems  of  public  instruction  are  now  arranged, 
your  committee  cannot  see  how  the  moral  and  scriptural  training 
of  our  youth  can  be  secured  under  them.  And  unless  these  are 
secured,  they  feel  persuaded  that  in  Christian  states  the  systems 
should  not  be  permitted  to  exist.  '  There  is  also  a  painful  convic- 
tion upon  their  minds,  that  unless  in  an  indirect  way,  states  in  their 
corporate  capacity  are  unfitted  to  manage  well,  institutions  having 
to  do  with  the  intellectual,  social,  moral,  or  even  pecuniary  inter- 
ests of  the  people.  Churches  controlled  by  the  state  are  the  worst 
of  all  churches — purely  state  colleges  are  the  worst  of  all  colleges  ; 
and  whether  right  or  wrong,  the  men  of  our  age  have  decided  that 
state  or  national  Banks  are  the  worst  of  all  Banks.  Even  Canals 
and  Rail  Roads  are  said  to  be  best  managed  by  private  corpora- 
tions. And  this  is  owing  to  the  fact,  a|)parently  contradictory  of  a 
proverb  of  Solomon  that  in  the  multitude  of  legislative  counsellors 
there  is  not  safety,  and  for  the  reason  that  they  are  not  all  Solo- 
mons, and  for  the  superadded  reason,  that  all  things  controlled  by 
the  state,  are  so  managed  as  to  subserve  political  and  party 
purposes.  They  find  it  more  necessary  to  propitiate  the  heartless, 
unprincipled  demagogue,  than  to  follow  in  the  paths  pointed  out  by 
wisdom  and  experience.  So  that  reasoning  on  general  principles, 
and  from  universal  results,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion,  that 
except  in  an  indirect  way,  states,  and  political  corporations,  are 
not  the  bodies  to  whom  the  management  and  details  of  our  public 
school  systems  should  be  entrusted. 

"  But  can  these  systems  be  placed  on  a  basis  so  as  to  secure  the 
patronage  of  the  State,  and  tlie  moral,  equally  with  the  mental 
training  of  our  youth  ?  This  is  a  question  of  the  gravest  import, 
and  for  which  your  committee  has  now  no  solvent.  To  every  plan 
which  suggests  itself  objections  arise,  but  by  no  means  so  fatal  as 
are  the  objections  to  the  present  system."  "Hence,"  says  the 
New  York  Observer,  "  it  appears  that  while  in  New  York  the 
Bible  and  other  religious  works  are  excluded  because  they  are 
sectarian,  infidel  works  are  introduced  under  the  plea  that  in- 
fidelity is  not  sectarian." 


4 


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